Results of Research on the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale

Much of Dr. Chitaley’s research has focused on describing the unique forest that thrived on the marshy coast of Northeast Ohio 363 million years ago. This work has been possible thanks to the Museum's world-renowned collection of plant fossils recovered from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale, especially those collected during the construction of Interstate 71 through Greater Cleveland.

Because specimens of tree-sized clubmoss stems (axes) and cones dominate the fossils in this collection, this ancient forest has become known as a "clubmoss forest." However, it contained a variety of forms of vegetation that thrived on the land adjacent to the warm, shallow Ohio Sea in the equatorial climate of the time.

In 1996, Dr. Chitaley and Dr. Kathleen Pigg described a slender, unbranched clubmoss (lycopsid) that had rootlike structures at the base and a straight cone at the tip that produced two types of spores (heterosporous). They named this new genus and species Clevelandodendron ohioensis. It is displayed in Kirtland Hall in the Museum. Its name was chosen to honor the bicentenary of the founding of the City of Cleveland, which took place in the year of publication.

The international scientific community agrees that this plant displays the origins of heterosporous reproduction and vertical growth habit in lycopsids. It is important in proving the origin of a present-day clubmoss called Quilwort, whose Latin name is Isoetis.

The Polysporia lycopsid with in situ spores in sporangia, known so far only from the Carboniferous, now has been recently discovered in situ, spores inside sporangia, from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale of Ohio. Also visible with the naked eye are hundreds of scattered micro and mega (male and female) spores.

Besides a few plants from other floral groups, two more lycopods, both equally important in the phylogeny and evolution of the group, were researched and published by Dr. Chitaley:

• Bisporagioatrobus harrisii, genus and species new, an eligulate, bisporangiate permineralized lycopsid cone from the Upper Devonian of Pennsylvania, 1988
• Smeadia clevelandensis, genus and species new, from the Upper Devonian Cleveland Shale of Ohio (the fossil was named in honor of the Smead Family who have been strong supporters of the Paleobotany Department)

Internship Opportunities

Since 1980, the Department of Paleobotany has offered programs giving an opportunity for a more in-depth look at the discipline. Interested students are encouraged to investigate the Adopt-A-Student program. Learn more about past Paleobotany Adopt-A-Students and projects.