People.BrandonU.Ca » David R. Greenwood » Research projects » Previously funded projects (selected)

Previously funded projects (selected)

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1. Turtle Mountain’s ancient forests. A re-investigation of Paleocene microfloras (spores and pollen) from the Turtle Mountain Formation (Goodlands Member) of southwestern Manitoba (in collaboration with Dr. Art Sweet, GSC Calgary). Funded (2005-2007) by the BU Research Committee (BURC).

  • Coals exposed in creek-banks on the western flank of Turtle Mountain were sampled for palynology by my undergraduate paleobotany class in 2005 and 2007.
  • Analysis of the spores and pollen from these early Paleocene coals was the subject of BU undergraduate student Karla Stouffer’s 2007 NSERC Undergraduate Summer Research Award, and is the topic of Mackenzie Desautels undergraduate thesis (2010).

2. Manitoba fossil woods. This project was a pilot study to investigate the taxonomic character of petrified woods common in surface deposits in south-western Manitoba. These fossil woods are often found associated with Pleistocene gravels, and may be reworked from Cretaceous, Paleocene, Oligocene or Miocene (Wood Mountain Fm.) sediments to the west of Brandon from Saskatchewan or as far as Alberta or Montana.

Wood specimens, mostly from the Souris gravel pits, have been sectioned by Harvey Young (Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Geology, BU) for microscopy. Ashley Greenley was employed under funds from BURC to analyze these specimens for taxonomic identification.

Initial work showed a mixture of conifers and angiosperms. The character of the woods surveyed so far is not consistent with a Cretaceous age for the fossils, but with these woods being Miocene.

3. Ancient forests & climates of a greenhouse earth: the early Paleogene of SE Australia. Funded 2001 by the Australian Research Council, with P.T. Moss, U of Iowa, and L.C. Sloan, U of California Santa Cruz.

4. Stratigraphy and palaeoenvironments of southeastern Australian Highland Tertiary macrofloras. Funded 2000 by the Australian Research Council, with J.A. Webb, LaTrobe University.

See Greenwood et al. 2017, in the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences. [URL]

5. Climate change and vegetative evolution during the Tertiary of south eastern Australia & western North America. Funded 1998-2000 by the Australian Research Council.

6. Quantitative foliar physiognomic analyses of Global Eocene climates. 1992-1993 Smithsonian Institution (NMNH), Postdoc. with S.L. Wing (Paleobiology Dept.).

7. A paleoecological analysis of the Canadian Arctic Eocene fossil forests of Axel Heiberg Island. 1990-92 NSERC International Postdoctoral Fellowship with J.F. Basinger, U of Saskatchewan.

8. The paleobiology of Arctic Eocene Azolla. (In collaboration with the Darwin Center for Biogeology (University of Utrecht, The Netherlands) Azolla Project). This project has ended.