Walter Cressler

Walter Cressler
  • Science & Health Librarian
  • Department: University Libraries
  • Institution: West Chester University of Pennsylvania
  • Email: WCressler@wcupa.edu

Education

  • BA, Biology, Dartmouth College
  • MS, Library & Information Science, Drexel University
  • MEd, Elementary Education, Widener University
  • PhD, Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of Pennsylvania

Research Interests

PaleobotanyTerrestrial PaleoecologyLandscape & Watershed HistoryBotanical History

Opportunities

Work Study Positions Available: No

Grant Funded Positions Available: No

Course-Credit Research Opportunities Available: No

Volunteer Research Positions Available: No

Biography

My research interests concern the evolution and history of landscapes. This has involved paleobotanical and geological investigations in the rocks of the Late Devonian Period - a time when the earliest forests were spreading, seed plants evolved, and fish developed limbs and were entering new habitats. This interest in landscapes has also focused on small watersheds in southeastern Pennsylvania and their natural and cultural history, specifically that of the Chester, Ridley, and Crum Creeks, and the Plum Run tributary of the Brandywine Creek. My latest research interest has turned toward the interior landscape of ideas, specifically that of Quaker attitudes towards nature and their influence on botany and other natural history pursuits in the early days of the American republic.

Contact Information

Phone: 610-436-1072

List of Publications

  • Cressler III, W.L., 2001. Evidence of earliest known wildfires. PALAIOS, 16, pp. 171-174
  • Cressler III, W.L, and Pfefferkorn, H.W., 2005. A late Devonian isoetalean lycopsid, Otzinachsonia beerboweri, gen. et sp. nov., from north-central Pennsylvania, USA. American Journal of Botany, 92 (7), pp. 1131-1140
  • Cressler III, W.L., 2006. Plant paleoecology of the Late Devonian Red Hill locality, north-central Pennsylvania, an Archaeopteris-dominated wetland plant community and early tetrapod site. In W. A. DiMichele and S. Greb [eds.], Wetlands Through Time, pp. 79-102. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 399
  • Cressler III, W.L., Daeschler, E.B., Slingerland R., and Peterson D.A. 2010. Terrestrialization in the Late Devonian: A palaeoecological overview of the Red Hill site, Pennsylvania, USA. In: Gaël Clement and Marco Vecoli [eds.], The Terrestrialization Process: Modelling Complex Interactions at the Biosphere-Geosphere Interface, pp. 111-128. The Geological Society, London 339
  • Cressler, Walt, 2020. Geological Origins of the Ridley Creek Valley Landscape and Its Influence on Human Land Use. Proceedings of the Delaware County Institute of Science. February 2020, XV (1): pp. 30-37

Links