ABSTRACT The historic town of New Harmony is located along the Wabash River in Posey County, Indiana, and served as a focal point for natural scientists, especially geologists, in the early nineteenth century. Notable geologists that lived and worked in New Harmony during this time include Edward Travers Cox, William Maclure, Fielding Bradford Meek, Joseph Granville Norwood, David Dale Owen, Richard Dale Owen, Benjamin Franklin Shumard, Gerard Troost, and Amos Henry Worthen. Other natural scientists who worked in New Harmony include Charles Alexandre Lesueur and Thomas Say, and the town was also visited by James Hall, Leo Lesquereux, Sir Charles Lyell, and Alexander Philipp Maximilian, Prince of Wied. The purpose of this field-trip guide is to highlight the scientific and geologic enterprise that operated in nineteenth-century New Harmony, Indiana. There will be a tour of historic buildings including laboratories used by David Dale Owen, such as the Rapp-Owen Granary and his fourth laboratory, which was constructed in 1859. Furthermore, field-trip participants will visit a new geology exhibit at the Working Men’s Institute, an organization established by William Maclure in 1838. The field excursion will also visit historically significant localities, including Mississippian and Pennsylvanian exposures, the type section of the West Franklin Limestone, and a Pennsylvanian paleobotanical site that yielded extensive collections of plant fossils in the mid-nineteenth century. Finally, this field trip will provide an opportunity to discuss the importance of art to geological studies in the early nineteenth century. Specifically, hand-colored geologic maps, cross sections, and renderings of fossils were included with many of the scientific reports of historic New Harmony, and are reflected by the superb artwork of Charles Alexandre Lesueur, David Dale Owen, and Thomas Say. Access to view their original scientific artwork is possible only through special arrangement with the Working Men’s Institute.

Paleontological studies at Florissant have been ongoing for more than 13 decades. As the focus of these studies has shifted through this time, the site has provided important insights into the evolution of paleontology as a science from its beginnings in the nineteenth century through its subsequent development. Early studies focused on the description of new taxa from collections that were being made by the early scientific surveys of the American West, particularly the Hayden Survey during the early 1870s and an expedition from Princeton in 1877. The first studies and descriptions of these fossils were by Leo Lesquereux on the fossil plants, S.H. Scudder on the fossil insects, and E.D. Cope on the fossil vertebrates. At the beginning of the twentieth century, T.D.A. Cockerell conducted field expeditions in 1906–1908, and subsequently published ∼130 papers on fossil plants, insects, and mollusks. Work by these early researchers was the first to consider the implications of the Florissant fossils for evolution, extinction, biogeography, and paleoclimate. Even greater emphasis on these broader implications began when H.D. MacGinitie made excavations during 1936–1937 and published a comprehensive monograph on the fossil flora in 1953, including numerous taxonomic revisions and detailed interpretations of stratigraphic context, paleoecology, paleoclimate, paleoelevation, biogeography, and taphonomy. Other workers during the late 1900s initiated the first studies on pollen, dicotyledonous woods, and multiple organ reconstructions of extinct plant genera, and developed more quantified methods for determining paleoelevation and paleoclimate. Current work emphasizes plant-insect interactions, the use of diatoms as fresh-water paleoen-vironmental indicators and as agents in macrofossil taphonomy, and the use of insects as terrestrial environmental indicators.

Abstract When Louis Agassiz went to America in 1846, he took with him, or was soon joined by, a whole retinue of Swiss protègès and assistants who in the preceding decade had turned his scientific work into a corporate, collective enterprise. Among the new arrivals were E. Desor, A. Guyot, L. Lesquereux, C. Girard, and L. Pourtalès—a labour pool that enabled Agassiz to re-assemble the Neuchâtel ‘scientific factory’ on American shores. Indeed, some of the troop immediately went to work under Agassiz's supervision, plunging eagerly into the rich new fields of investigation that America afforded them. Although it was seemingly productive, by 1850 the group had dispersed. Some of the Neuchâtel naturalists, urged on by the egalitarian politics of the day, lost patience with Agassiz's domineering ways and determined to strike out on their own, fashioning independent careers. Others, still loyal to Agassiz, left to establish themselves in regular posts. All of these young naturalists struggled to adapt to American culture and make a go of it. Although Agassiz himself was hospitably received and well provided for, his followers found that they were looked down upon because of their foreign manners, broken English, and idealized scientific pursuits that appeared lacking in usefulness to their practically-minded hosts. Nor did they have abundant prospects for earning a living, obliged as they were to compete with native-born Americans for the few full-time scientific positions then available. Nevertheless, in the end they were remarkably successful. Lesquereux in palaeobotany and Guyot in physical geography reached the top in their fields in America. These two, along with Pourtalès, were honoured by election to the National Academy of Sciences. As for the others, Desor was launched on a productive career as a Quaternary geologist, when a family matter recalled him to Switzerland, and Girard was building an excellent reputation in ichthyology and herpetology, when he was obliged to return to Europe because of his support for the Confederacy in the Civil War. Working in geology and natural history, where broad experience and comparative observation paid dividends, the Swiss turned their European background into an advantage.

Abstract Palaeobotanical studies in the NW of England could be said to originate with Mr William Barton and Charles Leigh in the latter part of the 17th century. These individuals merely noted the existence of fossil plant remains in the Coal Measure deposits around Lancashire. However, it was not until the 19th century before any real studies were carried out on the flora found within the Lancashire Coalfield. The Ravenhead collection is primarily made up of an Upper Carboniferous Langsettian flora, fish and bivalves with some insect remains. The collector was Liverpool Museum volunteer Reverend Henry Hugh Higgins and the collection was made from a railway construction site in 1870. The site exposed two coal seams known as the Upper and Lower Ravenhead Coals. The collection was exhibited at the British Association meeting held in Liverpool in 1870 and at once created a great deal of interest. W. Carruthers remarked upon the fine preservation and the importance of having material where the separate components can now with certainty be shown to be part of the same plant. Higgins published the first paper on the Ravenhead collection in 1871. A year later, museum assistant Frederick Price Marrat produced an extensive paper for the Liverpool Geological Society in which he attempted a more detailed description of the Ravenhead flora. This paper described 58 true and seed fern specimens with variations, nine types that included five holotypes and two syntypes. However, Marrat admitted he found identification of plant remains by relying on external features extremely difficult and Williamson’s methods of examining the microstructures of fossilized material were not yet in use. He published a further paper in 1872, listing the Sphenopsids found at the Ravenhead site. The bulk of the Ravenhead collection, including most of the types, survived the May 1941 blitz that virtually destroyed the museum. Unfortunately, all of the Ravenhead display material was lost in the fire.

Abstract This field trip in the vicinity of the Florissant fossil beds includes five stops that examine the Precambrian Cripple Creek Granite and Pikes Peak Granite, and the late Eocene Wall Mountain Tuff, Thirtynine Mile Andesite lahars, and Florissant Formation. The Cripple Creek Granite and Pikes Peak Granite formed in balholilhs ca. 1.46 and 1.08 Ga, respectively. Uplifted during the Laramide Orogeny of the Late Cretaceous and early Tertiary, the Precambrian rocks were exposed along a widespread erosion surface of moderate relief by the late Eocene. The late Eocene volcanic history of the Florissant area is dominated by two separate events: (1) a caldera eruption of a pyroclastic flow that resulted in the emplacement of the Wall Mountain Tuff, a welded tuff dated at 36.73 Ma; and (2) stratovolcanic eruptions of tephra and associated lahars from the Guffey volcanic center of the Thirtynine Mile volcanic field. This volcanic activity from the Guffey volcanic center had a major influence on the development of local landforms and on sedimentation in the Florissant Formation, which was deposited in a fluvial and lacustrine setting and is dated as 34.07 Ma. The Florissant Formation contains a diverse flora and insect fauna consisting of more than 1700 described species. Most of these fossils are preserved as impressions and compressions in a diatomaceous tuffaceous paper shale and as huge petrified trees that were entombed in a lahar deposit.

Abstract The John Day Basin of central Oregon contains a remarkably detailed and well-dated Early Eocene–Late Miocene sedimentary sequence, known for its superb fossils. This field trip examines plant fossil assemblages from throughout the sequence in the context of their geological and taphonomic setting and regional and global significance. The Early to Late Eocene (>54–39.7 Ma) Clarno Formation contains fossil plants and animals that occupied an active volcanic landscape near sea level, interspersed with meandering rivers and lakes. Clarno assemblages, including the ca. 44 Ma Nut Beds flora, record near-tropical “Boreotropical” rainforest, which was replaced during late Clarno time by more open and seasonal subtropical forest. The overlying John Day Formation (39.7–18.2 Ma) was deposited in a backarc landscape of low hills dotted with lakes and showered by ashfalls from the Western Cascades. Fossils and paleosols record the advent of the “Icehouse” Earth during the earliest Oligocene, with decreasing winter temperature and more seasonal rainfall that supported open deciduous and coniferous forest, much like that of the southern Chinese highlands today. Sixteen and a half million years ago the Picture Gorge flood basalt covered the region. Animals and plants fossilized in the overlying (ca. 16 to >12 Ma) Mascall Formation occupied a relatively flat landscape during a warm and moist period known as the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum. In total this sequence preserves a detailed series of time slices illustrating regional biotic and landscape evolution during the Cenozoic that is highly relevant for deciphering regional and global biotic, climatic, and geological trends.

Abstract The stratified red beds of the Catskill Formation are conspicuous in road cut exposures on the Allegheny Plateau of north-central Pennsylvania. During this field trip we will visit and explore several fossil localities within the Catskill Formation. These sites have been central to recent investigations into the nature of Late Devonian continental ecosystems. By the Late Devonian, forests were widespread within seasonally well-watered depositional basins and the spread of plants on land from the late Silurian through the Devonian set the stage for the radiation of animals in both freshwater and terrestrial settings. A diverse assemblage of flora and fauna has been recovered from the Catskill Formation including progymnosperms, lycopsids, spermatophytes, zygopterid and stauripterid ferns, barinophytes, invertebrates and invertebrate traces, and vertebrates such as placoderms, acanthodians, chondrichthyans, actinopterygians, and a variety of sarcopterygians including early tetrapods. Since the early 1990s, highway construction projects along the Route 15 (Interstate 99) have provided a new opportunity for exploration of the Catskill Formation in Lycoming and Tioga counties. The faunas along Route 15 are dominated by Bothriolepis sp. and Holoptychius sp. and also include Sauripterus taylori and an assortment of other interesting records. The most productive Catskill site, and the source of early tetrapod remains, is Red Hill in Clinton County. Red Hill presents a diverse and unique flora and fauna that is distinct from Route 15 sites, and also provides a spectacular section of the alluvial plain deposits of the Duncannon Member of the Catskill Formation.

Abstract The stratified red beds of the Catskill Formation are conspicuous in road cut exposures on the Allegheny Plateau of north-central Pennsylvania. During this field trip we will visit and explore several fossil localities within the Catskill Formation. These sites have been central to recent investigations into the nature of Late Devonian continental ecosystems. By the Late Devonian, forests were widespread within seasonally well-watered depositional basins and the spread of plants on land from the late Silurian through the Devonian set the stage for the radiation of animals in both freshwater and terrestrial settings. A diverse assemblage of flora and fauna has been recovered from the Catskill Formation including progymnosperms, lycopsids, spermatophytes, zygopterid and stauripterid ferns, barinophytes, invertebrates and invertebrate traces, and vertebrates such as placoderms, acanthodians, chondrichthyans, actinopterygians, and a variety of sarcopterygians including early tetrapods. Since the early 1990s, highway construction projects along the Route 15 (Interstate 99) have provided a new opportunity for exploration of the Catskill Formation in Lycoming and Tioga counties. The faunas along Route 15 are dominated by Bothriolepis sp. and Holoptychius sp. and also include Sauripterus taylori and an assortment of other interesting records. The most productive Catskill site, and the source of early tetrapod remains, is Red Hill in Clinton County. Red Hill presents a diverse and unique flora and fauna that is distinct from Route 15 sites, and also provides a spectacular section of the alluvial plain deposits of the Duncannon Member of the Catskill Formation.