THE FORAM

... a foram (a.k.a. Gavalinella cf. G. stephensoni)

Hello, and welcome to my web page.  To explain the name of this page, and the preceding picture, it might be wise to explain a few things about who I am and what I do.  I am Jason J. Lundquist, and I am a foraminiferal micropaleontologist.  In this capacity I am employed by BP America Inc., to aid in their exploration for petroleum, predominantly in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico.  At some point I will add some content explaining the relevance of my work to that enterprise, but for now suffice it to say; the microfossils allow us to know how old the rocks we drill through are, and how they best correlate to other rocks we have drilled.

While that is a very interesting topic, it is not in fact the main topic of this page or the associated pages.  Rather this page is an outgrowth of some work I did while I was working on my dissertation in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.  My dissertation research (Foraminiferal biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic analysis of the Eagle Ford and Austin Divisions, Middle Cenomanian through Lower Campanian, of Central Texas) was predominantly concerned with the study of creatures like the one pictured above.  They are foraminifera (Order Foraminifera Eichwald, 1830), single celled organisms much like an ameba, but with a fossilizable test (shell).  They have occurred in great numbers in the world's oceans for much of the Phanerozoic.  The picture above, is a sketch of a foram which is very abundant in the Austin Chalk (and who my wife affectionately calls Elliot).

If you, the reader, are truly interested in my dissertation topic you may like to read a detailed discussion of my research.  If so, you'll either have to wait for me to put together a summary which can be conveniently accessed on this web page (I'm thinking about how to do it), or you can go to UMI (University Microfilms) and purchace a copy of the work.  As most, or all, of you probably have little interest in a five hundred page discourse on the subject... here are some pictures of me at "work" collecting samples or figuring out the stratigraphy of the Austin Chalk Group.

Here I am digging out samples from a weathered outcrop of the Dessau Chalk.

Me and the lower Atco Formation (of the Austin Chalk Group)

Me, climbing the Dessau Formation (of the Austin Chalk Group).

If that's got you interested...

My research was (and I suppose sort of still is) concerned with a highly detailed survey of the foraminiferal assemblages found within the Eagle Ford and Austin Groups, in central Texas.   This "high detail" refers both to the thoroughness with which I endeavored to characterize the fauna, and to the care I am took to sample all portions of the stratigraphic section (at intervals of a meter or less).  To accomplish this, it was necessary to become intimately familiar with the physical lithostratigraphy of the Austin Group as it occurs in Travis County Texas (for utility in  paleoenvironmental applications it was important to restrict the geographic extent of my sampling area).  

The result of this is that I may present to you a trip of the mind to the Austin Chalk Group.  If you are interested follow the link below.  If, as seems more likely,   you happened upon this site after having been to the Virtual Field Trip you can use this link to return.  I hope the added context as to where the work came from increased your understanding (or enjoyment).

Virtual Field Trip to the Austin Chalk

Why does a paleontologist study stratigraphy....

"Paleontology as a science is inseparable from stratigraphy. When they are divorced, paleontology becomes a misnomer for what more properly deserves the title of systematic or descriptive zoölogy." R.T. Hill (1887)