William G. Siesser
Ph.D. University of Cape Town, 1971
Biostratigraphy, Micropaleontology and Paleooceanography

office: 6723 Stevenson Center
phone: 615-322-2984
email: william.g.siesser@vanderbilt.edu

Bill Siesser's research mainly concerns the application of calcareous nannofossils to Cenozoic and Cretaceous stratigraphic problems.  His current investigations focus on biostratigraphic, chronostratigraphic and paleoceanographic studies of Cenozoic strata from cores obtained from the Solomon Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Pacific Ocean.

An additional field of investigation is the study of chitinozoans in the carbonate rocks of middle Tennessee.  These microfossils have been little studied previously, and are being used to refine the regional correlation of Ordovician stratigraphic units.

Siesser and students have investigated nannofossils in Tertiary and Quaternary cores from the Indian Ocean, nannofossils in Tertiary exposures in Alabama and Mississippi, and chitinozoans in Ordovician rocks in Tennessee.  Their onshore projects involve measuring and describing sections in the field and collecting samples.  After extraction of microfossils from the samples in the laboratory, the fossils are studied using both conventional and scanning electron microscopes.  Interpretation of the age, correlation and depositional environment of strata result from these projects.

Siesser, W.G. (1999).  Neogene calcareous nannofossils: western Mediterranean biostratigraphy and paleoclimatology.  In:  Zahn, R., Comas, M.C., and Klaus, A. (Eds.), Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 61:223-237.

Siesser, W.G., *Hendley, J.W. II, *Kessler, T.E., *Marler, J.C. and *Wehner, E.T. (1998).  Caradocian chitinozoans from the Central Basin, Tennessee.  Rev. Palaeobot. Palynol., 102:213-222.

Siesser, W.G. (1998).  Calcareous nannofossil Genus Scyphosphaera: structure, taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and phylogeny.  Micropaleontology, 44(4):351-384.

Siesser, W.G. (1995).  Paleoproductivity of the Indian Ocean during the Tertiary Period. Global Planet. Change, 11:71-88.

Siesser, W.G. and Winter, A. (1994).  Composition and morphology of coccolithophore skeletons.  In: Winter, A. and Siesser, W.G. (Eds.) Coccolithophores.  Cambridge Univ. Press, p. 51-62.

Siesser, W.G., Bralower, T.J., Tang, C., and Galbrun, B. (1992).  Late Miocene - Quaternary calcareous nannofossil biomagnetochronology of the Exmouth Plateau, northwest Australia.  In: von Rad., U., Haq, B.U., et al., Proc. ODP, Sci. Results, 122:677-681.

*Kessler, T.E. and Siesser, W.G. (1990).  Chitinozoans in the Ordovician (Caradocian) Ridley and Pierce Limestones of central Tennessee. (abst.)  Jour. Tenn. Acad. Sci., 65:42.

Siesser, W.G., Rogers, J. and Winter, A. (1988).  Late Neogene erosion of the Agulhas Moat and the Oligocene position of Subantarctic Surface Water.  Marine Geol., 80:119-129.

Siesser, W.G., Ward, D.J. and Lord, A.R. (1987).  Calcareous nannoplankton biozonation of the Thanetian Stage (Palaeocene) in the type area.  Jour. Micropalaeol., 6:85-102.

*Spain, D.R. and Siesser, W.G. (1986).  Petrology and paleoecology of the Pachuta Marl (Eocene) of Mississippi and Alabama.  Southeastern Geol., 26:251-263.

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* denotes student