Paleontology in Ohio

state of Ohio

Paleontology in Ohio refers to

Isotelus maximus is the Ohio state invertebrate fossil

Prehistory

No Precambrian fossils are known from Ohio, so the state's fossils record does not start until the Cambrian Period.^[2] During the later part of the period, Ohio was covered in seawater and located 10 degrees south of the equator. By the end of the Cambrian the sea was shallow and the climate dry. Although marine life was diverse during the Cambrian little is known about Ohio's Cambrian inhabitants because the only specimens known were found in core samples.^[2]

During the

horn corals, snails, clams, echinoderms, and graptolites.^[2]

Ohio was dry land during the

echinoderms, clams, brachiopods, and cephalopods.^[2]

During the early

ostracodes.^[4]

The rock record of the early

Mississippian in Ohio demonstrates the presence of deltas and bodies of flowing water. During the late Mississippian Ohio was covered by a shallow sea. Near the end of the Mississippian the seas withdrew from the state. Ohio was located near the equator. The fossil record of Ohio includes greater numbers of land plants, brachiopods, clams, crinoids, fishes.^[4]

Ohio was a low-lying

freshwater clam fossils are also known from the time. The marine life of Ohio included crinoids, snails, cephalopods, brachiopods, and fishes. Trilobites were also present, but their fossils are rare.^[4]

By the Permian period the sea had left completely. Local bodies of water were then lakes and rivers rather than saltwater.

eroded away. Permian fossils aren't especially common in Ohio, but include snails, clams, fishes, plants, amphibians, and reptiles. Marine fossils from this period are rare.^[4]

From about 248 to 1.6 million years ago Ohio was above sea level, so its rocks were eroded away rather than deposited.

forests buried by the action of glaciers have been discovered in Ohio.^[5] Around this time Ohio was inhabited by giant beavers, mammoths, mastodons, ground sloths and more modern animals, including humans.^[4]

History

Indigenous interpretations

Fossil

buffalo.^[7]

Scientific research

One of the most significant early fossil finds in Ohio was made between 1837 and 1838.

Huffman Dam, workers discovered a giant specimen of Isotelus. The specimen was 14 1/2 inches long and 10 1/4 inches wide.^[9]

In Spring, 1965 a major discovery of Devonian fossils occurred in

Smithsonian's David Dunkle uncovered as many as 50,000 fish fossils from a construction site, including giant species like Dunkleosteus and Titanichthys. By the ensuing November 120 or more different species had been found there, with half previously unknown to science.^[10]

Later, two elementary school teachers and their students catalyzed the process of getting Isotelus recognized as Ohio's

state fossil. Doris Swabb of Beavertown School in Kettering took her third grade students to the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery (then Dayton Museum of Natural History). Virginia Evers likewise took her fourth grade class from St. Anthony School to the museum. After seeing a cast of the Huffman Dam Isotelus, they got the idea to get the specimen recognized as Ohio's official state fossil. The students sent letters to Robert L. Corbin and Robert E. Hickey, members of the Ohio House of Representatives. Both Representatives agreed to sponsor legislation making the designation official. Senator Charles F. Horn agreed to introduce legislation for the same purpose in the Ohio senate.^[11]

Newspapers and television gave extensive coverage to the proposal for making Isotelus the Ohio state fossils. Many local geological groups came forward in support of the idea. The Ohio Division of Geological Survey provided technical assistance for the drafting of the bill itself, which designated Isotelus generally for the state fossils rather than the individual specimen discovered during the Huffman Dam excavations. Very little opposition to the bill was raised in either legislative body.^[11] On June 20, 1985 Ohio House Bill 145 declared the trilobite genus Isotelus to be Ohio's state invertebrate fossil.^[12]

Protected areas

Trammel Fossil Park

People

Erwin Hinckly Barbour was born near Oxford in 1856
.

William Berryman Scott was born in Cincinnati on February 12, 1858.
Charles Schuchert was born in Cincinnati on 3 July, 1858.
Akron on March 12, 1888
.

Erich Maren Schlaikjer was born in Newtown on November 22, 1905.
Stanley John Olsen was born in Akron on 24 June, 1919

Natural history museums

Cincinnati Museum of Natural History & Science, Cincinnati
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland
Karl Limper Geology Museum, Oxford
Orton Geological Museum, Columbus

Notable clubs and associations

Dry Dredgers^[13]
North Coast Fossil Club^[13]

Footnotes

^ Shrake (2003); "Fossil Collecting in Ohio", page 1.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Ohio Division of Geological Survey (2001); "A Brief Summary of the Geologic History of Ohio", page 2.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Ausich, Scotchmoor, and Springer (2006); "Paleontology and geology".
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h Ohio Division of Geological Survey (2001); "A Brief Summary of the Geologic History of Ohio", page 1.
^ Shrake (2003); "Where Fossils are Found in Ohio", page 2.
^ Mayor (2005); "Ivory and Monsters", page 9.
^ Mayor (2005); "Georges Cuvier's Archives of Indian Paleontology", page 62.
^ Shrake (2005); "Isotelus and its History in Ohio", page 1.
^ Shrake (2005); "Isotelus and its History in Ohio", page 2.
^ Murray (1974); "Ohio", pages 233-234.
^ ^a ^b Shrake (2005); "How Isotelus was Chosen as the State Fossil of Ohio", page 1.
^ Shrake (2005); "Isotelus: Ohio's State Fossil", page 1.
^ ^a ^b Garcia and Miller (1998); "Appendix C: Major Fossil Clubs", page 198.