April 21, 2025
If you think geology is about just looking at rocks, you really need to meet GRCC adjunct professor John VanRegenmorter. You won’t be able to resist his passion for geology, particularly for fossils.
“Who doesn’t love fossils?” said Tari Mattox, head of the Geology Department at GRCC. “Dinosaurs often are what get people into this discipline. I affectionately call John a fossil geek. He is so excited about them, and that excitement turns students on to geology. He’s always taking students out to do cool field work.”
John describes himself as “a kid who never outgrew dinosaurs.” His enthusiastic approach engages students to explore geology careers, while he demonstrates his expertise through his research and publications.
John’s passion for fossils started when he was 15.
“I thought I was going to be a dinosaur guy until I went on a dig with a high school group in the Badlands,” VanRengenmorter said. “That’s when I completely fell in love with fossil mammals.”
Now John is a well-regarded expert in the field. He frequently engages in field work and research, and recently co-authored a paper that appeared in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. He can provide an inexhaustible stream of knowledge because he’s a subject matter expert. But he also has the special skill of being able to translate what he knows into simple English.
“The paper we wrote focused on two things,” Van Regenmorter said. “We were looking at an area of Wyoming called 12 Mile Gulch. There, we discovered a new fossil species from a group of critters that were very closely related to primates. That’s fun in itself, because someone on our team got to name that fossil! However, we also realized that the presence and placement of fossils from this site in the geologic record is significant. We can use this information to further redefine geological time periods as they relate to this region. That matters because it allows us to compare fossil records around the world and learn from them.”
John says that studying the past can help us prepare for the future.
“The fossil records show that approximately 55 million years ago, the Earth’s temperature rose somewhere between 5-8 degrees Celsius over the course of 200,000 years,” VanRegenmorter said. “That’s the fastest temperature rise on record….until now. Don’t think a degree or two is significant? Well…there were alligators in the Arctic during this time! That’s how significant the changes were. Many species went extinct because they could not respond to the rapidly changing ecosystem. Currently, the Earth is warming even faster than that. Looking at how species responded then can help us think about how species might respond now.”
While it is not unusual for a professor to co-author a peer-reviewed paper, it is definitely an “above and beyond” thing for GRCC faculty.
“Our faculty is not required to do research,” Mattox said. “When students see that a GRCC professor is published, that should tell them this individual has a deep, rich knowledge base. Authorship is a sign of continued growth for educators.”
John and Tari both love to engage students in projects that help them explore and understand the world around them.
“I’ve taken students to Utah to dig up fossil mammals and out to the gypsum mines in Grand Rapids,” VanRegenmorter said. “Tari has taken GRCC students to fossil beds in southern Indiana and to the rocks of the Canadian Shield in the Upper Peninsula. If you study geology at GRCC, there are plenty of opportunities to do research, get involved and explore your own interests.”
Learn more about GRCC’s Pre-Geology program.
Captions:
- First image: 12-mile Gulch in Wyoming.
- Second image: Phenacolemur cavatus fossil.
- Third image: 12-mile Gulch in Wyoming.
This story reported by Julie Hordyk