Departmental research focuses on invertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, cultural geology and the history of geology. This includes systematic paleontology of myriapods and other organisms, studies of the rock units of northern Ohio and elsewhere, and the study of geologic aspects of human culture. The scope of these investigations has covered several continents, but the Museum’s own region of northern Ohio is a major focus.
Paleontological investigations have resulted in the description of the remains of the giant millipede
Arthropleura in Ohio as well as fossil millipedes from Illinois, Poland and France. Other areas of interest include trace fossils (ichnofossils) and problematical fossil organisms, including
Sphenothallus.
Studies of cultural geology have resulted in guidebooks and guidebook chapters about the building stones of Cleveland, Akron and Cincinnati, Ohio; Evansville, Indiana; and Baltimore, Maryland. A guidebook and book chapters related to the canals of Ohio; a geological study of gravestones in three northern Ohio cemeteries; guidebook chapters on the industrial geology of eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania, the Nebraska state capitol and the Civil War and cultural geology of southwestern Missouri, have also been published as part of the ongoing investigation of cultural geology.
An emphasis of current fieldwork is millstones used to grind grain. A paper by the department’s research team, including summer interns, discusses the use of fossils, including charophytes and fusulinids, to determine the
provenance of millstones in Ohio. Work is in process to extend this concept across North American, as are more broadly based geological
studies of millstones in northern Ohio and elsewhere. Other ongoing field investigations include studies of Ohio stratigraphy.
Some of the department’s investigations are archive- and library-based. These include a recent study of Joseph Stanley-Brown—a geologist, financier and son-in-law of President Garfield—published in the journal
Earth Sciences History.
Many of the department’s studies are conducted in collaboration with students and colleagues. For a more comprehensive listing of these studies, and the complete list of authors, visit the
Publications page.