Faculty-student biology research team publishes findings in Palaois
A team of paleontology researchers led by Lycoming College has discovered a well-exposed section of the Catskill Formation in North-Central Pennsylvania that contains abundant macrofossils and sedimentary features that make it well-suited for Upper Devonian fossil occurrences. Their research, entitled, “Vertebrate Taphonomy, Paleontology, Sedimentology, and Palynology of a Fossiliferous Late Devonian Fluvial Succession, Catskill Formation, North-Central Pennsylvania, USA” was published in the December issue of
Palaios, an academic paleontology journal.
David Broussard, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology and chair of the department at Lycoming College, led the research and writing project in 2018-2019. He explained that by combining different types of evidence, including the abundance and types of fossils and changes in the rocks, it became evident that the paleoenvironments preserved at Late Devonian (~362 million years ago) Catskill Formation outcrops near the towns of Blossburg and Covington in Tioga County, Pa., changed ecologically over time. These coastal paleoenvironments included large rivers and small streams that periodically flooded, producing muddy floodplains and swamps. When these floods occurred, ancient fish that lived in these waterways were pushed out onto the floodplain, died, were covered by sediments, and were eventually preserved as fossils to be found millions of years later. As floods receded, plants colonized these thick layers of mud that also preserve various trackways of invertebrate animals. Over time (~2 million years), these habitats transitioned from mostly slow-moving small streams and floodplains to larger, faster moving rivers that were forming due to glaciation (due to global cooling) and increased mountain-building to the east at the end of the Devonian Period.