A REGIONAL ONLINE FOSSIL AND STRATIGRAPHY GUIDE FOR SOUTHEASTERN K-12 GEOSCIENCE EDUCATORS

Our online fossil and stratigraphic resource presents several exposures of Paleozoic stratigraphy in the southeastern Appalachian region. Examples of strata incorporated in this web site includes the Ordovician Catheys Formation, Silurian Rockwood Formation, Devonian Chattanooga Shale, Mississippian Fort Payne Chert and Mississippian Bangor Limestone formations, and selected formations from the Pennsylvanian Crab Orchard Mountain Group, which caps the mountains north and west of Chattanooga. Localities are described in terms of driving instructions, maps, UTM co-ordinates, stratigraphic columns and photographs of the exposures. This web site is accessible through the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Geology program homepage: http://www.utc.edu/geoldept/.

Photographs of common marine invertebrate, trace and terrestrial plant fossils from each time period are identified. Key features of these fossils are labeled to facilitate fossil identification through description. Basic systematics of the organisms and their paleo-ecologic significance are described. This web site provides links to other web sites that contain global and regional perspectives of paleogeographic reconstruction.

This site supports teacher efficacy in meeting or surpassing earth science education benchmarks in rock identification, fossil identification, understanding earth's geologic history, evolution of different species in the fossil record, processes of plate tectonics and how these changes cause climatic and biologic variability as recorded by rocks and fossilized organisms.

We hope to provide links to web pages of regional stratigraphers and paleontologists willing to respond to questions from K-12 teachers and students.