About This Project

David Peterman and I are both Paleontologists who work field sites on private property in northern Texas. My research is focused on marine shark communities of the early Permian Period, while he is working primarily on Cretaceous Ammonites. We hope to visit a pair of sites that we have been to before at least one last time before exploring other localities elsewhere in the United States.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

My locality ultimately fits into a study that should provide global insight into the evolution of marine vertebrate communities during the early Permian. This locality is crucial to that understanding in that it unifies sites in Russia, and in Bolivia.

The locality Dave is interested in exploring should provide samples that will help him to better understand and analyze the various types of shell ornamentation used by ammonites and how ornamentation affected the ability of the shell to move though the water. He is also interested in understanding the broad scale macroevolution of this group and their shells.

What is the significance of this project?

My research should help to illuminate marine fish communities from a period of time that is significant in that it is both poorly studied, and crucial in our understanding of the evolution of later marine faunas for the next 200 million years.

David's research outline the tools for understanding the hydrodynamics of ammonites, as well as other ammonite relatives, and if successful should provide future researchers with the tools to analyze the biomechanics of over a thousand fossil species whose movements though the ocean are still debated.

What are the goals of the project?

In the Permian, my goal is to do one final survey of the site, and bulk sample for microfossils at a few crucial layers. In the Cretaceous, Dave is hoping to collect specimens for study, as well as develop an understanding of the stratigraphy and depositional events which led to the accumulation of marine fossils at the site.