Housed at Beloit College is one of the finest collections of fossil crinoids in the world. This collection, on public display, represents an opportunity for research and education. A team of scientists and educators participating in the 1995 BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium has begun creating an interactive educational software project. This document describes the fossil collection, its history, and outlines the current project.
Crinoids were most abundant during the Missisipian Period, which ranged from 360 to 320 million years ago. During most of this time Iowa was covered by warm, shallow seas that provided favorable conditions for crinoid growth. A series of events occurred which resulted rapid burial of large clusters of crinoids. in a large number of crinoids being quickly buried in sediment. Theories have been offered to explain their rapid burial, but a careful study is still required to understand this unique example of preservation. Possibly an underwater slump, this event provided ideal conditions for the preservation and fossilization of the buried crinoids.
Burnice H. Beane devoted much of his life to studying the fossil crinoids discovered at the Le Grande quarry. Patiently cleaning with a dental pick and brush, he prepared many fossil crinoids and starfish, discovered several new species.
Robert H. Solem, amateur paleontologist and resident of Beloit knew Beane well. Solem purchased the fossils from Beane with the intent of letting Beane enjoy his fossils throughout his lifetime. With Solem's generosity, upon Beane's death, geology professors Hank Woodard and Richard Stenstrom moved the fossils from the Beane homestead to Beloit College where they are on display.
Two articles about the Le Grande crinoid fossils (Underwater Iowa: Where graceful crinoids one swayed in ancient seas (Ginalie Swaim)) and B.H. Beane (Crinoids in the Sugar Bowl: Remembering my grandfather amateur paleontologist B.H. Beane (Karen Beane Norstrud)) appear in the Spring 1995 edition of Palimpsest , Iowa's popular history magazine.
Click here to see a fossil crinoid which has been entirely freed from the surrounding matrix by the technique ilustrated above.
The BioQUEST Crinoid Education Project has the goal of providing K-8 students the opportunity to explore an interactive environment to learn about recent and extinct crinoids. In addition to images of the crinoids, students will have quicktime movies that illustrate the history of how the fossils were discovered and the past and present work of scientists to remove the surrounding matrix and reveal the fossils. Modules are also planned to allow students to simulate fossilization, construct phylogenies, and explore biogeographies.
This project is a collaborative effort between scientists and science educators. Dottie Stout, a Geologist from the Cypress College in California is coordinating the effort. The other team members include Steven D. Brewer at the University of Massachusetts, Don Buckley, from the University of Harford, Maria Correia, Instituto de Botanica Universidade do Porto, and Pam Tejkl, from the Battle Creek Math Science Center.
