Event Description:
The Hell Creek Formation in Montana and Dakotas is a fossil treasure trove from around 68 to 66 million years ago. Some dinosaur fossils from the Hell Creek Formation contain preserved biomolecules such as collagen, yet what preserves these biomolecules is still unknown.
Dr. Yamamura studied these biomolecules to figure out how this preservation occurs. His fieldwork took place in eastern Montana and South-central Utah where he used chemical signatures for paleoclimate investigation. His research includes petrography, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and stable isotope geochemistry.
Daigo Yamamura, Ph.D.
Daigo Yamamura is among the Science faculty at Miles Community College (MCC).
He received a B.S. in Earth Science and Ecology and an M.S. in Earth Science from Montana State University (2008 and 2013 respectively). In 2017 he moved to Fayetteville, AR to study stable isotope geochemistry and received a Ph.D.
His dissertation work provided opportunities to collaborate with the Natural History Museum of Utah, Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Bureau of Land Management and Utah Geological Survey.
He has also worked as a mitigation paleontologist in Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana with a research focus on paleoclimate and paleoecology of the Cretaceous North America.
The majority of his fieldwork took place in eastern Montana and South-central Utah. Use of chemical signatures for paleoclimate investigation requires distinguishing biological signatures from geological (diagenesis) signature. As such, his understanding of chemistry is essential to the techniques employed in his research; including petrography, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and stable isotope geochemistry.
