- Early returns
- Lost and found
- On the radio
- Faculty awards and activities
- A geologist’s work in progress
Whitey Hagadorn with a fossil slab.A geologist’s work in progress
Four years ago, Whitey Hagadorn, assistant professor of geology, spotted a jellyfish fossil in a photo taken in Wisconsin. Intrigued, he wondered what other fossils might be hiding nearby. Jellyfish fossils are rare and useful: they can mark out where the shoreline was millions of years ago, and, because few deposits can preserve a life form as fragile as a jellyfish, they can tell scientists where to look for evidence of other old and delicate creatures.
It seemed a road trip was in order. Hagadorn studies marine environments from as long as 600 million years ago, when animals first appeared. With students along for the ride, he began to survey deposits in Wisconsin and Missouri and near the borders of Quebec, Ontario and New York State, hoping to learn about early animal colonies on land.
Over the course of this and several subsequent trips, Hagadorn has found fossils suggesting that 500 million years ago, animals moved up and down dunes and across tidal flats in the areas. Hagadorn believes that far from being stranded, the critters came to land by choice. He and his students have discovered fossils of lobster and crab ancestors, worm-like forms and foot-wide mollusks—“probably,” he says, “the biggest slugs that ever lived.” So far, he’s found no sign that predators lurked among the new residents: “It was kind of like a frontier.”
Captivated, Hagadorn continues the study. It can be hard to tell whether an animal traveled on land or under water. Because a raindrop can’t form under water, he looks for raindrop imprints in the fossil record: an animal trail that crosscuts a raindrop shows that the creature was on land. “The tracks,” Hagadorn says, “sort of put the perp at the scene of the crime.”
Now he wants to know why the animals came to land in the first place and what happened once they arrived. Did the transplants flourish in their new home? “I don’t think we know the answer yet,” the professor says. “We know they didn’t all die.”
Photo: Samuel Masinter '04