Addresses of All Authors
2327 Hardwood Drive, Hillsborough, North Carolina 27278 (USA)
Author's Biography
Dana Goodnight is a professional geologist holding licenses in North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina. He received a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, an MAR (Biblical Studies) degree from Westminster Theological Seminary California, a Master of Science degree in Science Education from the former Institute for Creation Research Graduate School, and a Master of Science in Geology from North Carolina State University. His current role is senior field geologist for Falcon Engineering within their geotechnical engineering group. He is involved in amateur fossil collecting and is interested in assisting creation research.
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Proposal
A relatively unexplored Upper Cretaceous (early Campanian) amber-bearing lignite deposit in Goldsboro, North Carolina has yielded a diverse assemblage of arthropods. Preliminary cataloging of approximately 175 biological inclusions obtained from the site include microscopic and macroscopic representatives from two subphyla of arthropoda (Chelicerata and Hexapoda) and at least 9 orders of insects (Blattodea, Coleoptera, Diptera, Hemiptera, Hymenoptera, Lepidoptera, Psocoptera, Thysanoptera, and Archaeognatha). In addition to animal inclusions, the Goldsboro amber often contains abundant plant matter, fungal mycelia, enhydros, and air bubbles. The inclusions depicted by micrographs in this poster presentation have not been formally classified and systematically described. Only an extinct ant genus Baikurus (Krynicki, 2013) and a new species of phantom midge, Neuseptychoptera carolinensis, (Szadziewski, et al., 2018) from this site have been described by others. Cretaceous amber sites in North America, yielding abundant biological inclusions are rare, so even the systematic description and classification of this material would be noteworthy even without developing more specific applications to creationist modeling. The primary purpose of this presentation is to visually document the diversity of inclusions being found in North Carolina amber and to recruit other creationists with the expertise needed to properly evaluate and develop potential research goals for this material. The amber and biological inclusions being reported here belong to the personal and expanding collection of the author.
Disciplines
Geology
Keywords
Cretaceous, Campanian, North Carolina, amber, Goldsboro, arthropods
DOI
10.15385/jpicc.2023.9.1.70
Print Reference
672
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Recommended Citation
Goodnight, Dana J.
(2023)
"Diverse Assemblage of Arthropods in Amber from Upper Cretaceous Tarheel Formation near Goldsboro, North Carolina,"
Proceedings of the International Conference on Creationism: Vol. 9, Article 60.
DOI: 10.15385/jpicc.2023.9.1.70
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.cedarville.edu/icc_proceedings/vol9/iss1/60
Submission Type
poster