Fossilized remains of dinosaurs from the Mesozoic Era are often used to reconstruct the historical paleogeography of North America. Throughout this era, the eustatic sea level shifted, altering the landscape and thereby impacting dinosaurs’ ecosystems. We addressed the research question: can we outline eustatic sea-level change using dinosaur fossil deposits? To explore this idea, we used geologic knowledge and GIS techniques to map a theoretical outline of North America’s eustatic sea level history. We surveyed scholarly articles that discussed fossil deposits of the Morrison and Kootenai Formations. ArcGIS online and the Paleobiology Database was then employed to reconstruct a geological history of the continents. Drawing from datasets of prehistoric fossil locations, we classified dinosaur family groups into categories, then examined the depositional environments. Those environments allowed us to outline where sea level had risen or fallen in our selected timeframe.
Past Projects
