Event:

Event Description: 

The Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Dakotas is a fossil treasure trove from around 68 to 66 million years ago.  Some dinosaur fossils from the Hell Creek Formation contain preserved biomolecules such as collagen, yet what preserves these biomolecules is still unknown.  In order to understand such a unique preservation, both fossils and surrounding rocks were analyzed under microscope.  Although fossilized bones preserve original fabric, microscopic fractures indicate the repeated desiccation and rehydration.  The surrounding rocks show signs of grain dissolution and precipitations of carbonate and other minerals.  Although this study does directly identify the process in charge of soft tissues preservation, complexity of fossilization process has been revealed.

Presenter Bio:

Daigo Yamamura, Ph.D.

Daigo Yamamura is among the Science faculty at Miles Community College (MCC).
He received B.S. in Earth Science and Ecology and M.S. in Earth Science from Montana State University (2008 and 2013 respectively).  In 2017 he moved to Fayetteville, AR to study stable isotope geochemistry and received Ph.D. His dissertation work provided opportunities to collaborate with Natural History Museum of Utah, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Bureau of Land Management and Utah Geological Survey.
 
He has also worked as a mitigation paleontologist in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana.  with a research focus on paleoclimate and paleoecology of the Cretaceous North America. The majority of the fieldwork took place in eastern Montana and South-central Utah.  Use of chemical signatures for paleoclimate investigation requires distinguishing biological signatures from geological (diagenesis) signature. As such, understanding of chemistry is essential to the techniques employed in my research; including petrography, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and stable isotope geochemistry.