Oregon reptile fossils traced
By Kirsten Bolin
Of the Emerald
Fossils found in Northeast Oregon’s Wallowa
Mountains have been identified as the bones of an
ichthyosaur, a fish-like reptile native to the South
Pacific, says William Orr, curator of the Condon
fossil collection in the University Museum of
Natural History.
The 200 million-year-old fossils push back
the known record of vertebrate animals in the
state by nearly 50 million years, Orr says.
The backbone and ribs of the ichthyosaur, an
animal similar in size and shape to a modern-day
porpoise, were found in a limestone deposit near
Baker by a group of University students exploring
the area in 1981.
Using a variety of chisels, dental instruments
and acids. Orr has been removing the fossil
fragments from the slabs of rock for the last four
years and finished cleaning and identifying the
bones only recently.
Ichthyosaurs swam in schools and fed on fish
and squid far out in the open sea. The largest
ichthyosaur ever found was more than 50 feet in
length, he says.
The fossil’s southwest Pacific origin is
significant because it adds to a growing body of
evidence indicating that much of eastern Oregon
and northern California were transported by the
process of continental drift across the Pacific
Ocean to be later plastered onto North America,
Orr says.
Big plates of limestone rock containing
various fossil materials were carried over by the
drift, and the animal remains were transported in
fossil form to regions where the animal never liv
ed, he says.
The rib bones were identified by Orr as being
of Oriental origin because of their distinctive
shape. Native American bones have little indenta
tion in the center, but Oriental bones have
grooves and a figure-eight shape, he says.
r
Slides of Nicaragua
ASUO President Julie Davis will hold a
slide show and discussion today on her re
cent trip to Central America as part of the
weekly Brown Bag Lunch series.
Davis visited the countries of Nicaragua
and Honduras for a week in mid-February,
as part of a “fact finding mission” co
sponsored by the Ecumenical Ministries of
Oregon organization in Portland. Seventeen
other representatives of the state’s private,
professional, political and other sectors also
made the trip, which was designed to give
citizens a close-up look at the situation in
those Central American countries.
The trip to Central America was Davis’,
first, as she participated as a University stu
dent body representative.
Today's presentation will be held in
Room 221, Law Center at 11:30 a.m. and
will last an hour. Davis will hold a second
show and discussion Wednesday at 11:30
a.m. in the EMU Forum Room. The public
is invited to attend the free showings.
r. *
Photo by Michael Clapp
William Orr, a curator at the University
Museum of Natural History, explains the
significance of these 200 million-year-old
fossils.
Food use explored
‘‘From the Soil to Your Table,” a forum on the
safety of the food supply, will be held on campus
Wednesday.
The forum begins at 9:30 a.m. with a discus
sion on “Nutritional Quality of the U.S. Food
System” by Professors Joan Dye Gussow of Col
umbia University and Jean Peters of Oregon State
University.
Gussow will also speak on “Women, Power
and Food” today at 4 p.m. in the EMU Dad’s
Room.
At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Mary O’Brien, of
Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to
Pesticides, and Jake Makenzie, of the U.S. En
vironmental Protection Agency, will discuss
“Pesticide Use and Food Safety.”
At 3 p.m., farmers Toni Hunton and Robert
Cooperrider will, discuss. “Agricultural
Chemicals and the Food Supply.” Several recent
films on the food supply will be shown at 6:30
p.m.
These forum events will be held in EMU Room
167. Registration for the event, which is spon
sored by the University’s department of school
and community health and other groups, is $15.
Tuesday-Thursday 9=30-noon ^
in March £
AahcuA
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