Press

ALBANY, NY – New York State Paleontologist Ed Landing, known for his research about the the earliest life in New York and other parts of the U.S., has won a prestigious award recognizing his research on the geology of Canada.

Dr. Landing is the first U.S. citizen and first paleontologist to win the R.J.W. Douglas Medal. The honor is bestowed annually by the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists to recognize scholars who make outstanding contributions to the understanding the sedimentary geology of that country. The medal was presented May 8 at the Society’s annual meeting in Calgary, which draws prominent geologists from around the world.

Landing, who has won top awards for several scientific papers and a commendation from the New York State Assembly, noted that such honors illustrate how scholarship an enhance public education.

“A lifetime career award like the Douglas Medal shows that you can combine scientific originality with service, like writing exhibit text and caring for the State Museum’s fossil collections,’’ he said.

In bestowing the medal, the Canadian Society cited Landing’s work tracking the evolution of Earth’s oldest animals, particularly his data on their origins in eastern Newfoundland. The research led to definition of a time standard known as the Precambrian- Cambrian boundary, which has provided scientists with far more accurate chronology than they once had. Recently, Landing has used evidence supplied by the rocks in New York and Canada to propose the likely production of major gas and oil deposits when ancient seas were very high.

The state paleontologist and curator of paleontology at the State Museum since 1981,Landing is the author of six books. Forty-seven of his 115 peer-reviewed papers are based on his field work in Canada and he has conducted field studies in all but three provinces and territories. That work has helped provide a more complete understanding of early life in New York.

“The work I have done in Canada supplements what we know in New York,’’ he said. “By looking at similar rocks in southern Quebec and western Newfoundland, I have come to understand the history of the Taconic hills of New York and other important developments.”

Landing has devoted five National Science Foundation grants, totaling about $1.5 million, to tracing the evolutionary origins of modern marine groups worldwide. He co-authored a paper published in the journal Nature about the Museum’s discovery of the Earth’s oldest tree fossil in the Catskill Mountains, providing an important glimpse of what the forests looked like 380 million years ago.

Landing became interested in Early Paleozoic rocks and fossils as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He earned his masters and Ph.D. at the University of Michigan, devoting his doctoral thesis to Early Paleozoic biostratigraphy based on field work along the St. Lawrence River, in southern New Brunswick and parts of western Newfoundland. He has conducted post-doctoral studies at the University of Waterloo, with the United States Geological Survey in Denver and at the University of Toronto.

The New York State Museum, established in 1836, is a program of the New York State Education Department. Located at the Empire State Plaza on Madison Avenue in Albany, the Museum is open daily from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. except on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day. Admission is free and the Museum is fully accessible. Further information about Museum programs and events can be obtained by calling (518)474-5877 or visiting the Museum Web site at www.nysm.nysed.gov.

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