About

Loren Babcock is a Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University. His research focuses principally on the early history of multicellular animals, notably trilobites, biotic changes across the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition, Cambrian global chronostratigraphy, processes of fossilization, and various topics in evolutionary paleobiology such as the role of predation in evolution and the evolutionary history of biological asymmetry. He has authored more than 125 scientific articles and authored or edited seven books, including the widely acclaimed textbook, Visualizing Earth History. Prof. Babcock has received numerous awards, including the Charles Schuchert Award for Excellence and Promise in Paleontology and the Erasmus Haworth Award for Distinguished Alumni Honors in Geology from the University of Kansas. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and The Paleontological Society, and currently serves as Secretary of the International Subcommission on Cambrian Stratigraphy.

Research topics

• Geology
• Paleontology
• Biology
• Geography
• Archaeology

Selected publications

• How are fossils formed

  Open Access Government · 2026-04-16

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  How are fossils formed? Professor Loren E. Babcock examines the key processes of fossilization in paleontology, highlighting the critical role of rapid burial in preserving organic remains from quick decomposition. How do fossils form? This is the most fundamental question in paleontology. Originally, ‘fossil’ referred to anything dug from the Earth. Colloquially, ‘fossil’ can refer to something that is old or antiquated. Research in taphonomy, the processes of fossilization, is yielding surprising results that challenge longstanding assumptions about fossils and the multiple pathways to fossilization. (1–9) The common perception that organic remains fossilize after millions of years as sedimentary layers slowly change to rock now seems largely untenable.

  PublisherDOI

• Cladoselache, a puzzling ancient shark-like fish

  Open Access Government · 2026-01-19

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Cladoselache, a puzzling ancient shark-like fish Loren E. Babcock, Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University, introduces research on Cladoselache, a puzzling ancient shark-like fish. The Devonian Period, ~420 to 359 million years ago, is known in colloquial terms as the “Age of Fishes.” During this time, early cartilaginous and bony fishes experienced substantial diversification and adaptation to varied habitats. One characteristic and commonly illustrated Devonian fish is the shark-like Cladoselache (pronounced “klade-oh-sell-æ-key”), known from numerous specimens, some virtually complete, found in Late Devonian-age (~370 million-year-old) iron-carbonate concretions collected in and around Cleveland, Ohio, U.S. (1-4)

  PublisherDOI

• Progress in arthropod paleontology: honoring the research achievements of Dr. Rodney M. Feldmann

  Journal of Paleontology · 2025-05-01

  articleOpen access

  The late Dr. Rodney Feldmann had a remarkably long and productive career in paleontology spanning more than six decades , primarily focused on arthropod paleontology

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Globaler Stratotyp-Punkt des Paibium-Stadiums der Furongium-Serie im Kambrium-System

  2025-01-01

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• The first leech body fossil predates estimated hirudinidan origins by 200 million years

  PeerJ · 2025-10-01 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Clitellata is a major annelid clade comprising oligochaetes ( e.g ., earthworms) and hirudineans ( e.g ., leeches). Due to their scant fossil record, the origins of clitellates, particularly Hirudinea, are poorly known. Here, we describe the first leech body fossil, Macromyzon siluricus , gen. et sp. nov., from the Brandon Bridge Formation (Waukesha Lagerstätte). This fossil, which is preserved in exceptional detail, possesses several hirudinean soft-tissue synapomorphies–including a large sucker at the posterior end and sub-divided segments–and phylogenetic analyses resolve Macromyzon siluricus as a stem leech. Its age, 437.5–436.5 Ma, is consistent with early age estimates for the origin of clitellates, and predates molecular-clock-based estimates of hirudinidan origins by at least 200 million years. These findings suggest that the earliest true leeches were marine and that, contrary to prevailing hypotheses, were unlikely to have fed on vertebrate blood.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Rediscovery of the Type Specimens of the Sarcopterygian Fishes Onychodus sigmoides and Onychodus hopkinsi from the Devonian of Ohio, USA

  Diversity · 2025-05-25 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  John Strong Newberry described three species of the lobe-fin fish Onychodus (Osteichthyes, Sarcopterygii, Onychodontida) based on parasymphysial teeth, or tusks. Two species, Onychodus sigmoides Newberry, 1857 (type species of the genus) and Onychodus hopkinsi Newberry, 1857, were described from the “fish beds” in the Delaware Limestone (Middle Devonian, Eifelian) of Delaware, Ohio, USA; and one species, Onychodus ortoni Newberry, 1889, was described from the Ohio Shale, Huron Member (Upper Devonian, Famennian) of Perry Township, Franklin County, Ohio. In 1873, Newberry replaced the original species-group definition of O. hopkinsi with a definition based on teeth of different morphology from the West Falls Group (Upper Devonian, Frasnian) of Franklin, New York. Specimens of Newberry’s original Onychodus material, including the primary types, which were long assumed to be lost, have been rediscovered in a 19th-century collection. They show O. hopkinsi to be a junior synonym of O. sigmoides and clarify the species definition of O. sigmoides. Onychodus sigmoides, which is recognized from Middle Devonian strata of the Appalachian Basin in the United States and Canada, shows two end-member shapes of teeth on the parasymphysial whorl: procurved (arcuate) or nearly so proximally and recurved distally (anteriorly). Small teeth are commonly more slender than large teeth, which are robust. Parasymphysial teeth from the Upper Devonian of Ohio and New York are referred to O. ortoni.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The scientific career of Rodney M. Feldmann, 1939–2024

  Journal of Paleontology · 2025-05-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Rodney M. Feldmann (1939–2024) had a remarkable scientific career. Publishing primarily in paleontology and geology during seven decades, his legacy includes more than 500 journal articles, conference proceedings, books, book chapters, field guides, and laboratory manuals, in addition to many abstracts of talks presented at conferences. His published work has considerable breadth, but much of it concerns the paleobiology of decapods and other crustaceans. He supervised 47 M.S. theses and 14 Ph.D. dissertations and served in multiple societies and organizations and on editorial boards. Prof. Feldmann was an inspiration to his many students and colleagues around the globe and has left a lasting impact on science.

  PublisherDOI

• Contributors

  Elsevier eBooks · 2025-11-14

  book-chapter
  PublisherDOI

• Marine arthropod Fossil-Lagerstätten

  Journal of Paleontology · 2025-05-01 · 6 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Fossil-Lagerstätten, or Lagerstätten, have played a critical role in our understanding of the diversity, abundance, evolution, and systematics of marine arthropods. The tendency toward preservation of Phanerozoic marine arthropods as fossils generally increases as a factor of biomineralization. Concentration deposits (Konzentrat-Lagerstätten) tend to have an abundance of biomineralized arthropod taxa, whereas conservation deposits (Konservat-Lagerstätten) tend to produce a higher biodiversity that includes biomineralizing and non-biomineralizing taxa. Some Lagerstätten incorporate aspects of both concentration and conservation deposits, indicating that these concepts are idealizations, or preservational end members. For arthropod occurrences, it is useful to consider another dimension of Lagerstätten: their taphonomic associations. This leads to a more nuanced understanding of arthropod fossilization history. Four taphonomic associations account for a substantial number of marine arthropod occurrences: (1) concretions, (2) clusters, (3) event beds, and (4) microbially sealed sediments. Each of these occurrences can blur the distinctions between, or the means of recognizing, the idealized genetic categories of concentration deposits and conservation deposits.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Untangling the History of Jefferson’s Giant Ground Sloth

  2025-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In the spring of 1796, workers mining saltpetre in a western Virginia cave unearthed several unusual bones. This would launch the scientific study of extinct animals in North America and connect one of America’s founding fathers to the early development of palaeontology. Some of these mysterious bones eventually made their way to future US President Thomas Jefferson at his Monticello estate. Dr Loren Babcock from The Ohio State University’s School of Earth Sciences has conducted an extensive review of the complex naming history of this iconic extinct animal. His research untangles over 200 years of inconsistent scientific terminology and establishes the definitive nomenclatural history of what would become known as Megalonyx jeffersonii.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Paleobiology and Taphonomy of Exceptional Preserved Fossils from Jurassic Lacustrine Deposits, Beardmore Glacier Area and Southern Victoria Land, Antarctica

  NSF · $205k · 2003–2007

Frequent coauthors

• William I. Ausich

  216 shared

• Michael R. Sandy

  University of Dayton

  201 shared

• Daniel B. Blake

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  201 shared

• Ellen Compton-Gooding

  Institute of Paleobiology

  201 shared

• Donald R. Prothero

  201 shared

• O Councilors

  Harvard University

  201 shared

• Steven M. Stanley

  201 shared

• Johnny A. Waters

  Appalachian State University

  201 shared

Awards & honors

• Charles Schuchert Award for Excellence and Promise in Paleon…
• Erasmus Haworth Award for Distinguished Alumni Honors in Geo…
• Fellow of the Geological Society of America
• Fellow of The Paleontological Society