Dr. John Anderson, associate professor of physics; Mr. Dennis Bell, instructor of biology; and Dr. Lloyd Glawe, retired professor of geology, collaborated on the project.
The research is the result of collections from oil well core samples first studied years ago when Glawe was a Ph.D. geology student at Louisiana State University.
The mollusks range in age from 55-60 million years old and are very small.
None are over four millimeters in length. The photomicrographs were used to discuss various physical and morphological features of the minute shells.
This research, supported by ֱ̲, the Departments of Biology and Geosciences and the ֱ̲ Museum of Natural History, extends knowledge concerning the environmental conditions and mollusks present in the shallow, North American Inland Sea that covered Louisiana during the Late Paleocene era, from about 66 to about 55 million years ago.
There are plans for the information to be incorporated into a display for the ֱ̲ Museum of Natural History in Hanna hall.
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