Denison Scientific Association: Stable Isotopic Insights to Ancient Environmental Changes from the Huangling Anticline, South China to Petrified Forest, Arizona

Dr. Nolan studies the Co-Evolution of Life and Environment during critical intervals of Earth History. Dr. Nolan also studies the difficulties of geologically ambiguous signals from biotic and abiotic processes, investigating these questions through stable isotope geochemical and paleontological means. In this talk Dr. Nolan will discuss two projects: in the first how mercury stable isotopes can be used to investigate changing oxygen levels in the Late Ediacaran oceans of South China – an interval and location significant in the early evolution of animals. The second project, based on research conducted with a DU Biology student, investigates how carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from fossilized excrement can be used to understand the trophic structure of Late Triassic Environments – a time of great ecological and environmental change on land, including the proliferation of early dinosaurs.