EAR-PF: Investigating the Role of Changing Substrates in the Ordovician Radiation: Great Basin, USA

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Dr. Katherine Marenco is awarded an NSF Earth Science Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out a program of research and education at Bryn Mawr College in collaboration with scientists from the University of California - Riverside. The focus of this project will be exploring the relationship that development of hard marine substrates had in the evolution and distribution of hard-substrate-attaching fauna. The hard substrates consist of sediment trapped in shell beds, sponge-algal mud mounds, and patch reefs. Ordovician (490-443 Ma) marine deposits in California, Utah, and Nevada will be measured and sampled to: (1) describe physical characteristics of the sedimentary units at each locality and determine their relative age based on fossil content; (2) quantify the environmental distribution and abundance of hard substrates; (3) examine spatial and temporal distribution of different hard-substrate-attaching species to correlate with paleoecological indicators and sediment composition; (4) build diagrams that combine distribution of hard-attaching fauna and hard substrates in different environments and through time. Data from this project will be made available to the scientific community via the Paleobiology Database. The education plan consists of developing of museum exhibits on fundamental concepts of paleontology and reconstructions of the Ordovician world. In addition, undergraduate students will have the opportunity of being engage in field and laboratory aspects of the research.