Current Research

Kartchner Caverns Mollusks

I am currently working on gathering data on the modern mollusks in the region of Kartchner Caverns. These data will be used to compare and contrast with the fossil mollusks recovered from the caverns. This comparison will provide evidence for a changing environment over time. These data will be compiled with fossil and modern mollusks from other locations to create a regional perspective of changes to the molluscan community mosaic during the last 40,000 years. The dataset can be used for comparison to other regions of the Southwest and the Colorado Plateau.

Two days were spent at Kartchner Caverns in March, 2004.  The purpose of the visit was to collect modern mollusks from the most likely source of inflow to the caverns.  A total of 4 transects were completed in Guindani Canyon collecting across the stream channel up gradient.  These samples will be analyzed and correlated with samples previously collected in the immediate vicinity of the caverns.  The data will be compared with the fossil assemblage recovered from within the caverns to try to determine the paleoenvironment indicated by the fossil mollusk assemblage and the modern environment.

Dr. Rickard Toomey provided a tour of that portion of the caverns where the mollusks were recovered.  We then surveyed the area atop the caverns and then the Guindani wash in the immediate vicinity of the caverns.  A much clearer picture of physical and geological characteristics of the Kartchner Caverns area and clues to paleoenvironment has emerged as a result of the visit.  Data will be posted on this website as it is compiled and available.

 

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Porcupine Cave Mollusks

My thesis area is in the vicinity of Porcupine Cave located in South Park northeast of Salida in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. I will be collecting modern non-marine mollusks from the drainages upslope from Porcupine Cave to use for comparison to the fossil mollusk assemblage collected from the cave. This comparison should provide clues from determining the paleoenvironment of the fossil mollusks relative to the modern assemblage.  The fossil collection is being inventoried and analyzed at this time.  The data will be posted on this web site under Mollusk Data as it is assembled.  These data are to be considered a work in progress until completion of my Master's thesis.