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Shawnee State University professor presents research and goes on “once in a lifetime” trip in Canada

            Paleontology, the study of prehistoric life, is stimulating to Jeffrey Bauer, PH.D., geology professor in the Department of Natural Sciences at Shawnee State University. He recently presented his research on conodonts, a primitive fossil, at the Pander Society’s International Conodont Symposium 2009 at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. More than a dozen different countries were represented at the symposium.
            Bauer presented his research on a new model that explains the evolution of shallow-water conodonts during the middle Ordovician Period. A conodont is a tooth-like fossil from a primitive eel-like marine creature that is so small that a microscope is used to examine it.
            “They evolved very rapidly and by looking at the fossil, you can tell how old it is,” Bauer said. “Conodonts are significant to groups like oil companies because when they are drilling through rock thousands of feet below the surface, they can tell how old it is and how much the rocks have been heated.”
            The conodont body is very small, flattened with a little line that goes down the body which a number of people have interpreted as a notochord, he said.
            “The significance is that all chordates have a notochord,” Bauer said. “Humans and other mammals are chordates that develop a backbone later on. Chordates also include some organisms, like conodonts, that have no vertebrae.”
            The conference also included a field trip to visit the Burgess Shale Quarry in the Canadian Rockies, Yoho National Park in British Columbia. The Burgess Shale preserves Middle Cambrian fauna, including soft-bodied organisms that record the Cambrian evolutionary explosion.
            “The Burgess Shale is a world famous fossil site,” Bauer said. “It was five and a half miles all uphill to get there and took four and a half hours to get to the site. It took us two and a half hours to get back because it was all downhill.”
            The Burgess Shale is well protected by the Canadian government and no one can collect at the site. Everyone who enters the area must have a permit. It is famous for the exceptional preservation of fossils that have soft parts preserved. It is 505 million years old, Middle Cambrian period.
            “We were told we couldn’t collect the fossils, unfortunately, and the fine is $2,500. It’s a shame because these fossils will be destroyed before the next winter season is gone,” Bauer said. “The field trip was the highlight of the trip. As a paleontologist, you don’t get opportunities like this but once in a lifetime.”

PHOTO CUTLINE:
Jeffrey Bauer, PH.D., geology professor at Shawnee State University, stands in the Yoho National Park at the Burgess Shale site in the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. He took the field trip while attending the Pander Society’s International Conodont Symposium 2009 at the University of Calgary in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, where he presented his research on conodonts, a fossil from a primitive eel-like marine creature that is so small a microscope is used to examine it.