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I returned to Lafayette with my senior honors thesis topic: “Plant-insect interactions in the fossil record.” The 55-million-year-old plant fossils that I brought back with me show evidence of insect feeding, much of which looks just like modern herbivory. My thesis focuses on comparing the level of herbivory in south central Alaska with that of the Florissant and Green River formations in Colorado, deposited during the same time period. This will allow us to analyze the effects that latitude has on plant-insect interactions.
Through my research, I have photographed the samples, added them to a database, and calculated the percentages of various damage types. I also have calculated the total area of all specimens versus the total damaged area. Interestingly, we found from our collection that Paleocene-Eocene age leaves from Alaska were much larger than those from Colorado. We used the leaf area calculations to calculate a mean annual precipitation for south central Alaska at the time of deposition.
There is a lot of work to do with this small collection of plant fossils. Unfortunately, one year won’t be enough to address all the questions that I have, but hopefully other students will be able to continue with this project. One very exciting discovery that we made was ancient bugs in amber deposits near our camp site. They are currently being prepared and identified by the American Museum of Natural History. I hope to make a connection between these beautifully preserved insects and the fossilized leaf damage.
I had a great time working with my research adviser and the other students in Alaska. We keep in touch often to relay information about our studies and ideas. We will be getting together in April at the Keck Geology Consortium at F&M to present our project. Also, a small group of us will be presenting our senior research at the Geological Society of America Northeast Conference in March.
The field work that I did in Alaska and the current research that I am doing at Lafayette has inspired me to apply to graduate programs for paleobiology and/or paleoclimatology studies. I hope to continue with this type of work, maybe branching out a little into the areas of vertebrate paleontology or geochemistry. Eventually, I want to teach, either at the high school or college level. It would be great to bring exciting geology lessons to public school systems, where there is little being done to create an interest in the subject.