James Hagadorn | Denver Museum of Nature & Scienc
SWEET NEW FOSSILS FROM THE AMERICAN WEST AND MIDWEST: NEW GROUNDWATER, DIAGENESIS AND/OR BURIAL-PROXIES?
James presented emerging data on several suites of fossils that inform our understanding of ancient processes. These include: i) fossil turtles from the D1 Sequence of the Denver Basin, which could emerge as a burial depth proxy and/or provide insights into timing of early diagenetic mineralization; ii) fossil insects and leaves from the Green River, Florissant and related deposits that have been “ghosted”, providing clues to depositional environments characterized by specific early diagentic mineralization and later oxidation and groundwater flow; iii) fossil jellyfish from the Mazon Creek and equivalent strata that illustrate non-overlapping taphonomic windows across a basin; and/or iv) the rarest fossils in the Green River formation, bees, whose cause of rarity is uncertain.
BIO
James Hagadorn is the Tim & Kathryn Ryan Curator of Geology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. With interests in deep time and soft rocks, he has enjoyed getting to know Colorado’s spectacularly exposed geology and trying to peel back its onion-like layers to better understand our planet. An established scientist and steward of collections, James also reaches out to the community whenever possible to help illustrate how science and scientific thinking are relevant to everyone.