Three Hillsdale College biology students and Associate Professor of Biology Dr. Anthony Swinehart traveled 1500 miles to Kemmerer, Wyoming, this summer to conduct research on one of the most famous fossil deposits on the planet. Known as the “fossil capital of the world,” Kemmerer is located on deposits that have yielded some of the most completely preserved fish fossils that the fossil record has to offer. The rock formations of the area were formed in a large freshwater lake over 50 million years ago and have been frequented by palaeontologists and fossil hunters since the late 1800s. Private quarry owners excavate and export fossil fish to museums, scientists, and collectors from around the world. Fossil fish from the site range in price from $20.00 to tens of thousands of dollars.


Swinehart is heading a team of student and faculty researchers in cooperation with a private quarry owner, the National Park Service’s Fossil Butte National Monument, and Purdue University. The student researchers include seniors Sam Nutile, Mark Goss, and Kyle Carson. They are conducting the research as part of their required baccalaureate thesis in the Biology Department. Nutile and Goss were recipients of LAUREATES awards for their research. The focus of their study is novel. Although studies of the fossil plants and animals of the site are voluminous, there appears to be very little information on quantitative ecology of the site and no information on growth rates of the fossil fish, according to Arvid Aase, museum specialist with the Fossil Butte National Monument. The researchers hope to study small-scale changes in the numbers and kinds of fossil fish and changes in their growth-rate over time in response to environmental variables. In addition to the intrinsic value of the resulting data, information applicable to understanding the effects of climate change may be revealed.

Upon arrival, the team made their way via a College van up a remote, steep, rocky butte, scaring away several elk and pronghorn antelope as the van reached the crest. Immediately, they set up four military-style canvas tents, two for sleeping quarters, one for supplies, and one for cooking and dining. There they would live and work for 12 days. The view from the campsite was a landscape of multicolored buttes, valleys, and streams that stretched to the horizon in all directions. It was near dusk when they finished setting up camp, and their research quarry was only a short walk down a steep grade below their campsite. Serious work would begin in the morning, but excitement led to a short excursion to “the pit” that evening. Climbing out of it, the group was quickly reminded of the effects high elevation has on those not accustomed to it.

The silence of the next morning was broken by cell phones acting as alarm clocks set at 7:30 a.m. After a quick camp meal of energy-rich pancakes, the group made their way to the pit with a wagonload of tools and supplies and began marking off their research site. Once the boundaries had been established, they began to excavate the rock in the blazing sun of a tree-less landscape. The sedimentary rock formed in annual layers, and each layer can be carefully removed with a flattened piece of steel (termed appropriately by locals as a “steel”) sharpened at one end. Each annual layer is less than a millimeter thick, and careful removal regularly results in the discovery of a perfectly preserved fish. According to Nutile, “peeling off the layers of rock was like turning pages of a book on geologic history.” Goss added that “it was more like one of those children’s ‘pop-up’ books, because you never knew what kind of fossil surprise you were going to get every time you removed a layer.” Careful removal of rocks and fossils with steels, fine probes, and brushes continued until about 8:00 p.m. This 12-hour work schedule was repeated for about 12 days, removing about one inch of rock per day, until the bottom of the study layer was reached. Swinehart said there was not a single complaint about the hard work on the part of the students, and each day was met with as much enthusiasm as the previous. Carson said the whole experience was “surreal.”

The group was stunned when at the end of their fieldwork they began to assess the number of fossil fish they had collected and prepared for transport back to Hillsdale. They do not yet have an exact number, but guess the weight of the fossils totaled between 500 and 700 lbs. When they removed them from the packing back at the College, the fossils covered the entire palaeoecology laboratory. Many of the fossils from the expedition will be placed on display in the soon-to-open Daniel M. Fisk Museum of Natural History in Room 214 of the Strosacker Science Center.

Now, Swinehart and his students are carefully cleaning the fossils, conducting statistics on the field data, and preparing fossil fish vertebrae for Scanning Electron Microscopy. Dr. Ranessa Cooper, Associate Professor of Biology, has been training the students on the use of the sophisticated microscope so that the age of the fish can be determined by counting the annual growth rings on the vertebrae, similar to those seen in trees. Once the data have been analyzed, the students will present a seminar to the biology students and faculty before preparing their written theses. Swinehart hopes that the research can be published in a scientific journal.