Return from the field

Spending time in the field collecting fossils from the Paleocene and Eocene strata of western Colorado has left me without any recent entries in my blog. I am excited by the discoveries we made this summer and will be returning in July. The beds we collected from represent a remarkable period of time between 60 to 55 million years ago. During this time the physical world was undergoing rapid changes in climate and geography, while the animals on land and in the oceans underwent a significant modernization. Most modern mammals arose during this interval of time. How these changes occurred during such a short period of time is one of the many questions I am addressing with my research. Based on the fossils discovered this summer, the area is unlike other terrestral sections that preserve this time interval and may offer an unique perspective on the Paleocene-Eocene transition. I will be presenting the results of this work in the fall at the Soceity of Vertebrate Paleontology annual meetings in Arizona.