In Memoriam
Tab Rasmussen PhD, Co-PI (1958 - 2014)
Modern exploration for Eocene fossils of the Uinta Basin began in 1993 by Dr. D. Tab Rasmussen. At the time, he was faculty at Washington University in St. Louis and was already well-known in the field of primate evolution and ecology. Starting in 1993 and continuing until the early 2000’s, Tab brought undergraduate and graduate students to collect the badlands of the Uinta Formation. Both the graduate advisor to Dr. Beth Townsend and undergraduate advisor to Dr. Tony Friscia, Tab also advised other students who worked on Uinta Basin fossils for their undergraduate and doctoral projects. Tab learned fossil collection in the Early Eocene Willwood Formation of the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming as a graduate student under Dr. Elwyn Simons, and also worked in the Paleogene of the Fayum Depression in Egypt. In addition to paleontology, Tab also worked on modern primate behavior. He was raised in Arizona, and developed a love for the natural world there from his father, a biologist, and passed on that practice of observing natural history to his students. His publications on the fossils of the Uinta Basin include naming a new species of fossil primate, Chipetaia lamporea. Tab passed on the Uinta project to his students, and went on to do research on Paleogene fossils in sub-Saharan Africa. He passed away in 2014, but his influence on the project lives on.
Jim Westgate, PhD, Co-PI (1953 - 2022)
Jim Westgate was a dedicated man to the community of science, softspoken, and a man of great humor. He taught since to his students through the experience of hands-on first hand experience, and even off the clock you could never go anywhere wihout him making discoveries a long the way. See below to see him describe his own legacy in the Uinta Basin.
“I first conducted fieldwork in the Uinta Basin in 2004, as I was curious to see the type localities of the Uintan Land Mammal age. I had collected Uintan (Ui3) age specimens at the Casa Blanca community quarry in Laredo, TX from 1984-2009 (15+ tons of bulk samples) and wanted to see how the Texas sea level and Utah mountain basin communities compared. In 2007, a 1-ton test sample of the Ui3 WU-26 “Pond locality” showed that micro-mammals were present and my student crews from Lamar University from 2008-2019 processed an additional 37 tons of sample, yielding nearly 1000 complete mammal teeth and a few jaws. I plan to expand our screen-washing operations to other WU localities during the next three field seasons.
My academic training includes a B.S. in Geology from the College of William & Mary, with a senior thesis on a nearly complete middle Miocene cetothere skeleton of Thinocetus arthritis, I collected as a summer research intern in the Vertebrate Paleontology Section of the Dept. of Paleobiology at the U.S. National Museum. I also co-described with Frank Whitmore, a skeleton of a new species of Pliocene bowhead whale, Baleana ricei, as part of my duties as a research intern. I earned an M.S. degree in Geology from the University of Nebraska with my thesis research on a nearly complete skeleton of Aelurodon taxoides from the Miocene of Nebraska. I earned an M.S. in Biology from Missouri State University, with my thesis research on a late Eocene estuarine community from Jackson Group deposits in northeastern Arkansas. Screen-washing bulk samples yielded a diverse suite of invertebrates, sharks, reptiles, archeo-cete whales, and two land mammal species. My Geological Sciences Ph.D. dissertation involved bulk sampling and screen-washing 5-tons of mangrove estuarine, late middle Eocene, Laredo Formation deposits exposed in Laredo, TX. Remains of 30 species of late Uintan mammals, reptiles, sharks and bony fishes were recovered associated with a low-land rain forest and mangrove flora.” - Jim Westgate