About 300 million years ago, a limestone deposit crushed a critter in its layers, fossilizing its remains. In the mid-1980s, a team of paleontologists discovered it in Bear Gulch, Montana. It lay buried in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City until Erika Weller, a senior geological sciences major at Ohio University, began working with the fossil. But when Weller began examining the specimen, she became more convinced that it had been mistakenly classified as a nautiloid cephalopod, an ancient shellfish. Weller has begun to call it a coleoid cephalopod, ancestor to modern day squids and octopi.

“This is my guy,” she says as she displays the fossil, which to the untrained eye may resemble a thick worm it's about six inches long with a pointed tail. During its lifetime in the Mississippian era, what is now Montana was close to the equator, so the climate was warmer and the area was underwater. The marine environment was ripe for this type of animal. The most distinguishing feature, the one that made Weller and her adviser Royal Mapes think the fossil had been incorrectly classified, is called a rostrum. This part of the cephalopod's body makes a slightly darker impression when fossilized, and is a mineralized structure on the outer shell, she says. The rostrum is only found in coleoids, so its presence is a key factor in the new classification.

“(This new species) could shed some light on the evolutionary development of cephalopods through the ages,” Weller says. Mapes, a professor of paleontology, is excited by the finding. The specimen could be a completely new species, as it was found in an unexpected location and has unique features compared to its contemporaries found in Utah and Arkansas.

“(It) literally doubles what we know about the group of animals,” he says. "It will impact our understanding and how we draw conclusions regarding evolution.”

To confirm their suspicions, Weller traveled to the University of Montana in May 2003 to study and compare the cephalopod she is working with to the university's collection of similar fossils from the same region. Afterward, she began to compare measurements of body shapes and parts of other coleoids of that time period. With all of her physical data collected, Weller gave other paleontologists a first glance at her work at a meeting of the Geological Society of America in November. She then prepared an article for submission to the Journal of Paleontology.

Like fossilization, this process can be very drawn out, Weller says. Other paleontologists will critique the article, which may take several months.

After she makes revisions, the journal may publish the article. At that point, the field of paleontology might be introduced to a new species and experts will consider her conclusions.

“[We are] quite a ways away from getting the species recognized,” says Weller, who is patient and excited about the process. Eventually, if the fossil is indeed classified as a new species, it will be given a scientific name. But that might happen well after Weller's graduation this spring, when she will be commissioned in the Air Force. While her work on the coleoids will end, the little critter fossilized in limestone isn't going anywhere any time soon.

Department Of Geological Sciences - www.ohiou.edu/geology
Fragments of History (Perspectives Article) - www.ohiou.edu/perspectives/0002/profile_history.html