UWM Professor Stephen Dornbos Discovers New Algae Fossils in Mongolia

Not everyone grows up knowing that they want to be a geoscientist. Professor Stephen Dornbos is the exception. He went from collecting fossils and arrowheads as a child in Michigan to becoming part of a group of researchers that would discover two new species of fossilized algae.

“I was always kind of fascinated with natural history,” said Dornbos in his office, where a prominent map of Mongolia and other Asiatic souvenirs were on display.

The algae fossils Dornbos helped found are incredibly rare, dating back to around 555 million years ago. Soft-bodied fossils can only be found in Burgess Shale Type (BST) deposits. These BST deposits are the best-known areas to search for soft-bodies fossils, and there are only a few known BST deposits worldwide, including in Mongolia. The fossils were preserved exceptionally well through a process called carbonization. This process basically leaves behind a carbon film of the organism within the rock. The fossils can give us a look at a time when the first complicated species began to develop on Earth.

“Mongolia is a very nice place where ancient geologic formations are excellently exposed without almost no vegetation,” said Tatsuo Oji, Dornbos’ main collaborator on the project.

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Dornbos and Oji, from the Nagoya University Museum, had known each other for years before the discovery, working together in excavation sites in the western United States. Oji knew of a deposit from the Ediacaran/Cambrian time period that was still relatively untouched and invited Dornbos along to the excavation site. The Cambrian time period (635- 488 million years ago) is his specialty.

2013 was Dornbos’ first year at the site. The work done in the Zavkhan province was not always the easiest. A group of around six to 10 people (including a cook, driver and the occasional graduate student) would drive for days to the excavation site and set up camp.

“Pretty much when the sun rises, you get up because your tent gets too hot to sleep in,” said Dornbos.

The days were spent splitting shales (large rocks) with a rock hammer in the search for fossil fragments. The group would also drive around to other localities with the hope of finding more fossil rich deposits. The algae fossils were found in between two layers of limestone.

Dornbos was immediately able to recognize that the algae fossils were something previously undiscovered. So little of the scientific literature about the area is available in English and in turn available for the Western world to read. One of the first English speaking teams to the site was from Oxford, and they arrived in the 90’s. They provided the basis for known English literature about the area. Dornbos had researched all of the available literature and knew that nothing about the two algae species had been recorded.

The first year the deposit was discovered, the group was not expecting it so there was very little time to excavate. They only had time to grab a few good fossil samples to take back with them. It wasn’t until 2015 that the group actually began excavating the site.

Once Dornbos and his group identified the algae, they were tasked with naming the two new species.

“We tried to relate the names to Mongolia,” said Dornbos. “We liked the idea of naming one of them after Chinggis Khan.”

The official names of the two new species are Chinggiskhaania bifurcate and Zuunartsphyton delicatum.

Dornbos’ trip to Mongolia wasn’t all hard work. One of the big national pass-times in Mongolia is wrestling and the group would often get into wrestling matches with their driver. They also experienced a real Mongolian cookout, which involves burying a goat atop scalding hot river stones to let it cook. Mutton was the meat of choice through out the entire trip.

“The people there were really friendly and welcoming,” said Dornbos as he recalled a couple that invited the group over for dinner.

Currently, Dornbos is continuing his research on some of the fossil samples he found, but eventually they will all be returned to Mongolia and put in a museum. Dornbos’ scientific report on the fossils is available online for those interested and is titled “A new Burgess Shale-type deposit from the Ediacaran of western Mongolia”.

“Our discovery of the Burgess Type Deposit from western Mongolia will hopefully open a door for the discovery of other well-preserved fossils, such as marine animals in the future excavation,” said Oji.

The group will return to Mongolia this year with the hopes of discovering new fossils.