Russell Shapiro, assistant professor of geology at Gustavus Adolphus College, will present his research on stromatolites, rock structures built by bacteria, at the 39th annual meeting of the North-Central Section of the Geological Society of America on May 19-20, 2005.
Shapiro’s lecture, “Stromatolites: A 3.5 Billion Year Ichnologic Record,” argues that stromatolites should be thought of as “ichnofossils,” or recorders of organism-environment interactions, akin to dinosaur “trackways.”
“Viewed this way,” notes Shapiro, “we can then use the three and a half billion year fossil record of stromatolites to gain insight into bacterial evolution, climate change, and Earth’s history.”
The event, held at the Radisson Hotel Metrodome on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis is hosted by the Minnesota Geological Survey and Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Minnesota. It is expected to attract approximately 800 geoscientists.
For more information, contact Ann M. Cairns, director of communications and marketing for the Geological Society of America at (303) 357-1056 or via email at acairns@geosociety.org.
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