Faculty/student collaboration connects fossil park data with 3d GIS methods

A research paper bridging paleontology and GIS, with SEE faculty and students, was recently published in Frontiers in Earth Science.  Dr. Kristyn Voegele led an excavation of a 1-square-meter pit of the Main Fossiliferous Layer at the Edeleman Fossil Park.  Dr. Zachary Christman worked with Geography major and GIS minor Shane Walsh to digitize the 1:1 scale map of the locations of each fossil into a GIS framework, and then Geology major and GIS minor Tara Lonsdorf conducted 2- and 3-dimensional analysis of the different fossil assemblages.  Results of this research demonstrate that fine-scale 3D analysis could more clearly define and distinguish these layers for improved interpretation of the fossil record.

Figure caption (counter clockwise from upper left): the 1:1 scale map was digitized and ortho-rectified, with the centroid of each fossil precisely mapped and joined to the identification and elevation data.  The published article in Frontiers in Earth Science, with a figure of the 3d assemblage of fossil occurrences by location and identification. Click figures to enlarge.