Douglas J. Nichols is a Research Associate with the Department of Earth Sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science and a Scientist Emeritus with the United States Geological Survey (USGS). He received his Ph.D. in geology from The Pennsylvania State University before pursuing a career that has included university teaching, the oil industry, and 30 years of research with the USGS. Dr Nichols is a palynologist, with research interests in the fossil pollen and spores of Upper Cretaceous and Paleogene rocks, with emphasis on biostratigraphy, paleoecology, evolution, and extinction events. I...