PRELIMINARY LOOK AT TRACE FOSSILS - LATE CRETACEOUS COLERAINE FORMATION; HILL ANNEX MINE STATE PARK, CALUMET, MINNESOTA JOHN WESTGAARD, JASON KORF, H.

Presentation on theme: "PRELIMINARY LOOK AT TRACE FOSSILS - LATE CRETACEOUS COLERAINE FORMATION; HILL ANNEX MINE STATE PARK, CALUMET, MINNESOTA JOHN WESTGAARD, JASON KORF, H."— Presentation transcript:

1 PRELIMINARY LOOK AT TRACE FOSSILS - LATE CRETACEOUS COLERAINE FORMATION; HILL ANNEX MINE STATE PARK, CALUMET, MINNESOTA JOHN WESTGAARD, JASON KORF, H. DOUGLAS HANKS and STEPHEN M. WILLGING

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION
HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE COLERAINE FORMATION GEOLOGY TEREDOLITES POSSIBLE WOOD-BORING GASTOPOD, OR NOT? PARASITIC INTERACTION WITH MOLLUSKS INVERTEBRATE BURROWS POSSIBLE MYSTERY FOSSIL WORK CITED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

3 INTRODUCTION smm.org/hill Hill Annex Paleontology Project
Examining the Cretaceous soils of Minnesota. Documenting evidence both public and private. Building community engagement and public awareness. Fostering informal STEM education. smm.org/hill

4 HISTORY OF RESEARCH ON THE COLERAINE FORMATION
First reported in 1893 by Newton Horace Winchell In 1944, Bergquist published his findings Robert Sloan reports on Cretaceous Systems in Minnesota for the Minnesota Geologic Survey in 1964 Bruce Erickson publishes a monograph on Teleorhinus from the Iron Range in 1969 William Cobban & E.A. Merewether in 1983 reported on the Stratigraphy and Paleontology of the Cretaceous in Minnesota and Cobban worked on the Cretaceous Mollusk fauna

5 GEOLOGY Morey, G.B. Bedrock Geology of Minnesota. Minnesota Geologic Survey, 1996

6 GEOLOGY Coleraine formation
Iron - ore conglomerates, shales, and sandstones Thickness varies throughout the formation Cenomanian to Turonian in age Transgressions and Regressions of the Western Interior Seaway Paleoenvironment would be similar to Chesapeake Bay today

7 GEOLOGY View of one of the Sidewalls in the Hill Annex Mine at Hill Annex Mine State Park, Calumet, MN.

8 TEREDOLITES Also called “Shipworms Wood boring bivalve
Found in pieces of logs Bergquist was the first to report them in 1944 Tubes filled in with sandstone

9 POSSIBLE WOOD BORING GASTROPOD OR NOT?
Initially Field ID as a possible Wood boring Gastropod Under further investigation we were able to determine they are Pholas clams There haven’t been any documented reports in the past on them in the Coleraine Fm.

10 POSSIBLE WOOD BORING GASTROPOD OR NOT?
Up-close view of the shell and internal cast in the top left corner of the specimen viewed in the previous slide using a microscope.

11 POSSIBLE WOOD BORING GASTROPOD OR NOT?
Up-close view of the internal cast of the specimen in the previous 2 slides using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) at 500 um.

12 POSSIBLE WOOD BORING GASTROPOD OR NOT?
Up-close view of a Pholas clam in the side of the fossilized wood specimen seen in slide 9 using a microscope.

13 PARASITIC INTERACTION WITH MOLLUSKS
Up-close view using a microscope of a fossilized oyster shell found at Hill-Annex State Park with a boring in it in the top right area.

14 PARASITIC INTERACTION WITH MOLLUSKS
Up-close view using a microscope of the opposite side of the fossilized oyster shell found at Hill-Annex State Park with a boring in it in the top right area.

15 INVERTEBRATE BURROWS Thalassinoides
Possible tracemakers are Crustaceans Marine and Coastal facies Cruziana Ichnofacies Made up of immature angular sediments comprised of quartz grains, iron, and clays

16 INVERTEBRATE BURROWS Ophiomorpha Trace makers are Decapod Crustaceans
Marine Environments Skolithos Ichnofacies Morphology is diverse Lined with oval shaped pelletoidal sediments

17 POSSIBLE MYSTERY FOSSIL
Up close view of a possible mystery fossil that was initially thought to possibly be the internal cast of a large Ammonite, but now is thought to possibly be a burrow from a vertebrate.

18 POSSIBLE MYSTERY FOSSIL
A different view of the possible mystery fossil. It was found in what seems to be a paleosol layer in the Coleraine Formation that had slumped.

19 POSSIBLE MYSTERY FOSSIL
Almost overhead view of the possible mystery fossil.

20 WORK CITED Bergquist, H. R., 1944, Cretaceous of the Mesabi iron range, Minnesota: Journal of Paleontology, v. 18, p. 1 – 30. Erickson, B. R., and Sanders, A. E., 1991, Bioturbation Structures in Pleistocene Coastal Plain Sediments of South Carolina, North America: Scientific Publications of the Science Museum of Minnesota., v. 7, no. 2, p. 1 – 13. Martin, A.J., & Project Muse 2013, Life Traces of the Georgia Coast Revealing The Unseen Lives of Plants and Animals: Revealing the unseen live of plants and animals. Bloomington: Indiana University Press Sloan, R. E., 2005, Cretaceous: Minnesota Fossils and Fossiliferous Rocks, p. 167 – 202. Winchell, N. H., 1893, Note on Cretaceous in northern Minnesota: American Geologist, v. 12, p. 220 – 223.

21 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS A special thank you to our supporting partners: Minnesota Discovery Center – Museum of the Iron Range Science Museum of Minnesota Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Parks and Trails Division Lands and Minerals Division Forestry Division

22 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thank you to … …all our donating contributors. … Jeff Thole and Macalester College (SEM work). … Minnesota Geological Survey. Photos: Mark Ryan Amitycreek.com smm.org/hill