Paleontology in Massachusetts

Last updated
The location of the state of Massachusetts Map of USA MA.svg
The location of the state of Massachusetts

Paleontology in Massachusetts refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The fossil record of Massachusetts is very similar to that of neighboring Connecticut. [1] During the early part of the Paleozoic era, Massachusetts was covered by a warm shallow sea, where brachiopods and trilobites would come to live. No Carboniferous or Permian fossils are known from the state. During the Cretaceous period the area now occupied by the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard were a coastal plain vegetated by flowers and pine trees at the edge of a shallow sea. No rocks are known of Paleogene or early Neogene age in the state, but during the Pleistocene evidence indicates that the state was subject to glacial activity and home to mastodons. The local fossil theropod footprints of Massachusetts may have been at least a partial inspiration for the Tuscarora legend of the Mosquito Monster or Great Mosquito in New York. Local fossils had already caught the attention of scientists by 1802 when dinosaur footprints were discovered in the state. Other notable discoveries include some of the first known fossil of primitive sauropodomorphs and Podokesaurus . Dinosaur tracks are the Massachusetts state fossil.

Contents

Prehistory

No Precambrian fossils are known from Massachusetts, so the state's fossil record does not begin until the Paleozoic era. During the early part of the era the state was covered by a warm shallow sea. The local brachiopods and trilobites left behind their fossils. The state's Carboniferous rocks are metamorphosed and therefore don't have any fossils. The Permian occupies a gap in the state's rock record because at that time local sediments were being eroded away rather than deposited. During the Cretaceous period the area now occupied by the Elizabeth Islands and Martha's Vineyard were a coastal plain near a shallow sea. Flowering plants and pine trees grew on this plain. The ensuing Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era is another gap in the state's rock record. Nevertheless, during the Pleistocene epoch glaciers intruded into the state. The sediments they deposited preserved mastodons and molluscs at Cape Cod. [2]

History

Indigenous interpretations

The local fossil theropod footprints of Massachusetts may have been at least a partial inspiration for the Tuscarora legend of the Mosquito Monster or Great Mosquito in New York. The story of the Great Mosquito describes it as having a wingspan as wide as three men, a long beak with sharp teeth, claws as long as arrows, a body the size of the bear and leaving birdlike footprints about twenty inches long. It killed many people and when it swooped down on Native forts its large wings made a loud noise. The sky spirit killed the Great Mosquito at the salt lake near Onondaga, where the local Onondaga and Cayuga people examined its remains. The area became known as the Place Where the Great Mosquito Lies. The birdlike footprints in the legend resemble those left by theropod dinosaurs. However, since there are no Mesozoic strata nearby to preserve them the footprints inspiring the story may have been observed elsewhere in New England, like Massachusetts, where they are quite abundant. [3]

Scientific research

Negative Grallator showing skin impressions Grallator.jpg
Negative Grallator showing skin impressions

Among the earliest major fossil discoveries in Massachusetts occurred during the spring of 1802, when Pliny Moody uncovered a piece of reddish sandstone with bird-like three toed footprints while ploughing on his father's farm in South Hadley. [4] More fossil footprints were discovered a few decades later, in 1835. At the time, the town of Greenfield Massachusetts was laying paving when residents noticed footprints on the sandstone slabs that resembled those of turkeys. The rocks used in the project had been excavated at Turners Falls, and this location would turn out to be the most productive dinosaur tracksite in the Connecticut Valley. [5] Later that year, the fossil footprints discovered while paving in Greenfield were brought to the attention of local naturalist and physician James Deane, whose curiosity was piqued. [6] Deane wrote a letter to Amherst College geology professor Edward B. Hitchcock. [6] Hitchcock spent the rest of the summer traveling through the Connecticut Valley examining the fossil footprints. [7] The next year Hitchcock wrote a scientific paper on the fossil footprints of the Connecticut Valley; he thought the tracks were made by giant birds. [8] Later, in 1843, James Deane began publishing on the Connecticut Valley track fossils with a paper in the American Journal of Science. [8] In 1847 the ichnospecies Otozoum moodi was named after Pliny Moody. [4]

In the mid-nineteenth century came an 1855 discovery by William Smith, Esquire. Smith noticed fossil bones uncovered in the process of blasting for renovations to the water shops of the US Armory at Springfield, Massachusetts. Many of the fossils had already been removed. [9] General Whitney, who was in charge of the armory, ordered that the remaining fossils be re-examined. William Smith showed the leftover fossils to Edward Hitchcock. [10] Hitchcock gave the fossils to Jeffries Wyman. the remains included eleven vertebrae, most of a hand, a partial pelvis and hind limb. [11] Later that year, the Appleton Cabinet was built by Amherst College to house the dinosaur tracks collected and studied by Edward Hitchcock. [12] In 1858, Hitchcock published again on the Connecticut Valley fossil footprints. Still interpreting them as bird tracks, he classified the trackmakers based on whether their toes were thick or narrow. [8] Hitchcock died in 1864. [13] The next year, a posthumous supplement to Hitchcock's 1858 Ichnology of New England was published. [14] In 1865, the fossils uncovered at the Armory in Springfield were finally given a name. In England, Sir Richard Owen examined the fossils and named them Megadactylus polyzelus . [11]

Restoration of Anchisaurus. Anchisaurus2.jpg
Restoration of Anchisaurus .

Massachusetts paleontology saw major events occur early in the twentieth century as well. In 1904, Richard Swann Lull published his first study of the Connecticut Valley fossil footprints. [15] Five years later Massachusetts paleontologist Mignon Talbot became the first woman elected to the Paleontological Society, [16] and during October of the next year, Mignon Talbot discovered a partial dinosaur skeleton in a gravel pit near the South Hadley Center belonging to John A. Boynton. The discovery has been called "the most prized specimen" in Mount Holyoke College's geological museum. [16] It has also been regarded as the last major find in the "Connecticut Valley 'bone rush'". [17] That December, Talbot gave a presentation to the Paleontological Society about her dinosaur discovery in South Hadley. She interpreted the skeleton as belonging to an herbivore. [18] The next year Mignon Talbot collaborated with Richard Swann Lull collaborated on a description for the recently discovered dinosaur at South Hadley. They corrected Talbot's previous misidentification of the specimen as an herbivore and reclassified it as a theropod. They named it Podokesaurus holyokensis. [18] Six years later, a fire consumed Williston Hall at Mount Holyoke College, destroying the bones of Podokesaurus holyokensis. However, casts previously taken of the bones survive in Yale's Peabody Museum and New York's American Museum of Natural History. [18]

Almost two decades later, Carlton S. Nash discovered Early Jurassic dinosaur footprints in Portland Formation rock near South Hadley, not far from Pliny Moody's early dinosaur discovery. [19] Around 1939 Nash bought the site of his 1933 dinosaur footprint discovery starting Nash Dinosaurland and selling dinosaur tracks to a worldwide market. [20]

People

Births

Natural history museums

Private and commercial enterprises

Events

See also

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Murray (1974); "Massachusetts", page 156.
  2. ↑ Springer and Scotchmoor (2010); "Paleontology and geology".
  3. ↑ Mayor (2005); "Fossil Footprints", pages 47-48.
  4. 1 2 Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", page 58.
  5. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", pages 58-59.
  6. 1 2 Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", page 59.
  7. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", pages 59-60.
  8. 1 2 3 Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", page 60.
  9. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "The East Coast Awakes", page 72.
  10. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "The East Coast Awakes", pages 72-73.
  11. 1 2 Weishampel and Young (1996); "The East Coast Awakes", page 73.
  12. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "The Great Institutions", page 79.
  13. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", page 61.
  14. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "Footprints in Stone", pages 60-61.
  15. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "More Early Footprints", page 61.
  16. 1 2 Weishampel and Young (1996); "The Dinosaur Lady", page 81.
  17. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "The Dinosaur Lady", pages 80-81.
  18. 1 2 3 Weishampel and Young (1996); "The Dinosaur Lady", page 82.
  19. ↑ Weishampel and Young (1996); "More Early Footprints", page 66.
  20. 1 2 Weishampel and Young (1996); "More Early Footprints", pages 66-68.
  21. ↑ Garcia and Miller (1998); "Appendix B: Major Fossil Shows", page 195.

Related Research Articles

Edward Hitchcock

Edward Hitchcock was an American geologist and the third President of Amherst College (1845–1854).

Podokesaurus is a genus of coelophysoid dinosaur that lived in what is now the eastern United States during the Early Jurassic Period. The first fossil was discovered by the geologist Mignon Talbot near Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1910. The specimen was fragmentary, preserving much of the body, limbs, and tail. In 1911, Talbot described and named the new genus and species Podokesaurus holyokensis based on it. The full name can be translated as "swift-footed lizard of Holyoke". This discovery made Talbot the first woman to find and describe a non-bird dinosaur. The holotype fossil was recognized as significant and was studied by other researchers, but was lost when the building it was kept in burned down in 1917; no unequivocal Podokesaurus specimens have since been discovered. It was nominated as state dinosaur of Massachusetts in 2021.

Mignon Talbot American paleontologist

Mignon Talbot was an American paleontologist. Talbot recovered and named the only known fossils of the dinosaur Podokesaurus holyokensis, which were found near Mount Holyoke College in 1910, and published a scientific description of the specimen in 1911. In 1909 she became the first woman elected to be a member of the Paleontological Society. In the state of New York, she contributed to the Helderbergian crinoids and studied the faunas of Stafford limestone.

The Connecticut River Valley trackways are the fossilised footprints of a number of Early Jurassic dinosaurs or other archosauromorphs from the sandstone beds of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The finding has the distinction of being among the first known discoveries of dinosaur remains in North America.

<i>Eubrontes</i>

Eubrontes is the name of fossilised dinosaur footprints dating from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic. They have been identified from France, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Australia (Queensland), USA, India and China.

Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet

The Hitchcock Ichnological Cabinet is a collection of fossil footmarks assembled between 1836 and 1865 by Edward Hitchcock (1793–1864), noted American geologist, state geologist of Massachusetts, United States, and President of Amherst College. He was one of the first experts in fossil tracks. A footmark impression in stone is a petrosomatoglyph.

Dinosaur Footprints Reservation

Dinosaur Footprints in Holyoke, Massachusetts, USA is an 8-acre (3 ha) wilderness reservation purchased for the public in 1935 by The Trustees of Reservations. The Reservation is currently being managed with the assistance from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR). The fossil and plant resources on the adjacent Holyoke Gas and Electric (HG&E) riverfront property are being managed cooperatively by The Trustees, Mass DCR, and HG&E.

Paleontology in Virginia

Paleontology in Virginia refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Virginia. The geologic column in Virginia spans from the Cambrian to the Quaternary. During the early part of the Paleozoic, Virginia was covered by a warm shallow sea. This sea would come to be inhabited by creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, corals, and nautiloids. The state was briefly out of the sea during the Ordovician, but by the Silurian it was once again submerged. During this second period of inundation the state was home to brachiopods, trilobites and entire reef systems. During the mid-to-late Carboniferous the state gradually became a swampy environment.

Paleontology in Maryland

Paleontology in Maryland refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Maryland. The invertebrate fossils of Maryland are similar to those of neighboring Delaware. For most of the early Paleozoic era, Maryland was covered by a shallow sea, although it was above sea level for portions of the Ordovician and Devonian. The ancient marine life of Maryland included brachiopods and bryozoans while horsetails and scale trees grew on land. By the end of the era, the sea had left the state completely. In the early Mesozoic, Pangaea was splitting up. The same geologic forces that divided the supercontinent formed massive lakes. Dinosaur footprints were preserved along their shores. During the Cretaceous, the state was home to dinosaurs. During the early part of the Cenozoic era, the state was alternatingly submerged by sea water or exposed. During the Ice Age, mastodons lived in the state.

Paleontology in Washington, D.C.

Paleontology in Washington, D.C., refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from Washington, D.C.. Local paleontology is known primarily for two serendipitously discovered dinosaur fossils. The first was a vertebra from a carnivorous dinosaur nicknamed "Capitalsaurus" that was related to Tyrannosaurus rex. "Capitalsaurus" is the official dinosaur of the District of Columbia; the place it was discovered was named Capitalsaurus Court in its honor and it even has its own local holiday. The second major fossil find was a thighbone from the long-necked sauropod Astrodon. The District of Columbia and Maryland are the only places where Early Cretaceous dinosaur remains are known to have been preserved east of the Mississippi River.

Paleontology in Pennsylvania

Paleontology in Pennsylvania refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The geologic column of Pennsylvania spans from the Precambrian to Quaternary. During the early part of the Paleozoic, Pennsylvania was submerged by a warm, shallow sea. This sea would come to be inhabited by creatures like brachiopods, bryozoans, crinoids, graptolites, and trilobites. The armored fish Palaeaspis appeared during the Silurian. By the Devonian the state was home to other kinds of fishes. On land, some of the world's oldest tetrapods left behind footprints that would later fossilize. Some of Pennsylvania's most important fossil finds were made in the state's Devonian rocks. Carboniferous Pennsylvania was a swampy environment covered by a wide variety of plants. The latter half of the period was called the Pennsylvanian in honor of the state's rich contemporary rock record. By the end of the Paleozoic the state was no longer so swampy. During the Mesozoic the state was home to dinosaurs and other kinds of reptiles, who left behind fossil footprints. Little is known about the early to mid Cenozoic of Pennsylvania, but during the Ice Age it seemed to have a tundra-like environment. Local Delaware people used to smoke mixtures of fossil bones and tobacco for good luck and to have wishes granted. By the late 1800s Pennsylvania was the site of formal scientific investigation of fossils. Around this time Hadrosaurus foulkii of neighboring New Jersey became the first mounted dinosaur skeleton exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. The Devonian trilobite Phacops rana is the Pennsylvania state fossil.

Paleontology in Delaware

Paleontology in Delaware refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Delaware. There are no local rocks of Precambrian, Paleozoic, Triassic, or Jurassic age, so Delaware's fossil record does not begin until the Cretaceous period. As the Early Cretaceous gave way to the Late Cretaceous, Delaware was being gradually submerged by the sea. Local marine life included cephalopods like Belemnitella americana, and marine reptiles. The dwindling local terrestrial environments were home to a variety of plants, dinosaurs, and pterosaurs. Along with New Jersey, Delaware is one of the best sources of Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils in the eastern United States. Delaware was still mostly covered by sea water through the Cenozoic era. Local marine life included manatees, porpoises, seals, and whales. Delaware was worked over by glaciers during the Ice Age. The Cretaceous belemnite Belemnitella americana is the Delaware state fossil.

Paleontology in New Jersey

Paleontology in New Jersey refers to paleontological research in the US state of New Jersey. The state is especially rich in marine deposits.

Paleontology in Connecticut

Paleontology in Connecticut refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Connecticut. Apart from its famous dinosaur tracks, the fossil record in Connecticut is relatively sparse. The oldest known fossils in Connecticut date back to the Triassic period. At the time, Pangaea was beginning to divide and local rift valleys became massive lakes. A wide variety of vegetation, invertebrates and reptiles are known from Triassic Connecticut. During the Early Jurassic local dinosaurs left behind an abundance of footprints that would later fossilize.

Paleontology in Rhode Island

Paleontology in Rhode Island refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the U.S. state of Rhode Island. Rhode Island has a relatively sparse fossil record. Among its more common fossils are plant remains that are frequently associated with the state's coal beds. During the early Paleozoic, Rhode Island was at least partially submerged under a sea inhabited by trilobites. During the Carboniferous period the state became a swampy environment where lush vegetation included trees more than 50 feet high. Local animal life included arachnids and insects like cockroaches. Rift basins formed locally during the Permian. The ensuing Triassic and Jurassic periods are absent from the state's rock record. Little is known about the state's Cretaceous history. The Paleogene and Neogene periods are also missing from Rhode Island's rock record. During the Pleistocene the state was subjected to glacial activity. Notable local fossil finds have included previously unknown kinds of insect and abundant ancient amphibian trackways.

Paleontology in the United States

Paleontology in the United States refers to paleontological research occurring within or conducted by people from the United States. Paleontologists have found that at the start of the Paleozoic era, what is now "North" America was actually in the southern hemisphere. Marine life flourished in the country's many seas. Later the seas were largely replaced by swamps, home to amphibians and early reptiles. When the continents had assembled into Pangaea drier conditions prevailed. The evolutionary precursors to mammals dominated the country until a mass extinction event ended their reign.

History of paleontology in the United States

The history of paleontology in the United States refers to the developments and discoveries regarding fossils found within or by people from the United States of America. Local paleontology began informally with Native Americans, who have been familiar with fossils for thousands of years. They both told myths about them and applied them to practical purposes. African slaves also contributed their knowledge; the first reasonably accurate recorded identification of vertebrate fossils in the new world was made by slaves on a South Carolina plantation who recognized the elephant affinities of mammoth molars uncovered there in 1725. The first major fossil discovery to attract the attention of formally trained scientists were the Ice Age fossils of Kentucky's Big Bone Lick. These fossils were studied by eminent intellectuals like France's George Cuvier and local statesmen and frontiersman like Daniel Boone, Benjamin Franklin, William Henry Harrison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. By the end of the 18th century possible dinosaur fossils had already been found.

Timeline of coelophysoid research

This timeline of coelophysoid research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the coelophysoids, a group of primitive theropod dinosaurs that were among Earth's dominant predators during the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic epochs. Although formally trained scientists didn't discover coelophysoid fossils until the late 19th century, Native Americans of the modern southwestern United States may have already encountered their fossils. Navajo creation mythology describes the early Earth as being inhabited by a variety of different kinds of monsters who hunted humans for food. These monsters were killed by storms and the heroic Monster Slayers, leaving behind their bones. As these tales were told in New Mexico not far from bonebeds of Coelophysis, this dinosaur's remains may have been among the fossil remains that inspired the story.

20th century in ichnology

The 20th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1900 and 1999 in the scientific study of trace fossils, the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms, especially fossil footprints. Significant fossil trackway discoveries began almost immediately after the start of the 20th century with the 1900 discovery at Ipolytarnoc, Hungary of a wide variety of bird and mammal footprints left behind during the early Miocene. Not long after, fossil Iguanodon footprints were discovered in Sussex, England, a discovery that probably served as the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World.

19th century in ichnology

The 19th century in ichnology refers to advances made between the years 1800 and 1899 in the scientific study of trace fossils, the preserved record of the behavior and physiological processes of ancient life forms, especially fossil footprints. The 19th century was notably the first century in which fossil footprints received scholarly attention. British paleontologist William Buckland performed the first true scientific research on the subject during the early 1830s.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.