Mitch Covington

Owner of BugWare, Inc.

Specialty: Cenozoic & Mesozoic Nannofossils
Mitch received a BA in Geology from UNC-Wilmington in 1982 before traveling to Tallahassee where he was awarded a MS in Geology from Florida State University (1985). While studying at Dr. Woody Wise’s world class Nannofossil Laboratory at FSU, Mitch sailed on Leg 93 of the Deep Sea Drilling project, which yielded an excellent Lower Cretaceous section offshore from the eastern U.S. coast. Mitch formally described several new nannofossil taxa from this section. For his thesis, Mitch studied nannofossils the Upper Cretaceous Niobrara Formation from the Western Interior. This section yielded exceptionally well preserved nannofossils, of which two were used for the cover photograph in separate issues of Marine Micropaleontology. Several new genera and species were also formally described from this study. Click here to see a list of Mitch's publications.

Upon graduation from FSU in 1985, Mitch began his career in the oil industry at Texaco, Inc. in New Orleans. He was the first nannofossil worker at Texaco to ever go offshore to perform wellsite paleo. While at Texaco, he also began development of paleontological software known today as BugWin. His powerful suite of software products is still widely used worldwide today.

Mitch left Texaco in 1989, bound for Tallahassee and the beginnings of BugWare, Inc. He participated in Ocean Drilling Project Leg 129 in the Mariannas Trench area, where sections were drilled from Recent to Jurassic. Mitch has built BugWare to be a leading provider of wellsite biostratigraphy in the Gulf of Mexico. Team BugWare has provided wellsite biostratigraphy for the Gulf ‘s hottest prospects, including Thunderhorse, Baha, Mad Dog, St. Malo, Trident and many, many more. See our map of projects worked. Contact Mitch at BugWare’s voice line, his cell at (850) 591-5087, or email him at mitch.covington@bugware.com.

Jim Pospichal, PhD

Specialty: Mesozoic and Cenozoic Nannofossils
Jim received his B.S. in Geology from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and followed up with an M.S. in 1989 and a PhD in 1993 from Florida State. Like most other BugWare paleontologists, Jim studied at the FSU Nannofossil Laborartory. He participated in two Ocean Drilling Program cruises as lead nannofossil paleontologist, Legs 188 and 121 sailing to Prydz Bay Antarctica and the Indian Ocean, respectively.

Jim’s first experience with industry began as a summer intern for Amoco in the summer of 1991. Jim’s academic research was based upon the nannofossil assemblages at the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Having studied sections from all around the world, Jim is the world’s foremost authority on this subject. He has published 20 articles as lead author, and many more as second author. Click here to see a list of Jim's publications. After graduation with a doctorate in 1993, Jim gained experience as Director/Curator of the Antarctic Marine Geology Research Facility at FSU, followed by Visiting Assistant Professorships at UN-Lincoln, Hamilton College, and Washington and Lee University.

Jim joined BugWare in 1998, and has since risen to be one of the very top nannofossil biostratigraphers in the Gulf of Mexico industrial arena. In addition to working many wells in the office, he has spent hundreds of days at wellsite on prospects such as Thunderhorse, Mad Dog, Atlantis, and many more.

Anatoliy Shumnyk, PhD

Specialty: Mesozoic and Cenozoic Nannofossils
Anatoliy received his PhD in Paleontology and Stratigraphy from the Graduate: Institute of Geological Sciences, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in 2002, and studied the nannofossils from the Upper Cretaceous of Southern Ukraine.During his tenure there, he also participated in a comparative palyno- and nannoplankton stratigraphy and correlation of the Upper Cretaceous deposits in Ukraine and Hungary, which resulted in several significant publications.

Anatoliy began work at BugWare in 2003, and has since become proficient in Cenozoic nannofossils on top of his previous Cretaceous expertise. He has worked as primary paleontologist on many office-based jobs, as well as “second-chair” paleontologist on a significant number of wellsite jobs. He is also developing an illustrated Paleogene nannofossil scheme for the Gulf of Mexico.

Anatoliy is also a Faculty Research Associate at The Florida State University Geology Department. He is involved in research projects with Dr. Woody Wise and assists in teaching classes in the Nannofossil Laboratory there, which includes a study of upper Cretaceous nannofossils from ODP Leg 207 drilled in the Central Atlantic Ocean. He also participated as Shipboard Paleontologist on IODP Expedition 308 in the Gulf of Mexico in June, 2005.

He is a member of the International Nannoplankton Association and Ukrainian Paleontological Society.

James Arney

Specialty: Cenozoic & Mesozoic Nannofossils
James received his BS in Geology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1997, and worked in the UN-L nannofossil laboratory under Dr. David Watkins. Upon completion of his BS, James came to Florida State here in Tallahassee where he received his MS in Geology. His thesis covered the Paleocene/Eocene nannofossils from ODP Leg 183 which was drilled on the Kerguelen Plateau.

James also sailed on ODP Leg 191 to the northwest Pacific Ocean as the shipboard nannofossil paleontologist. He worked at the Florida Geological Survey during his studies at Florida State. James joined BugWare in July, 2001 and has worked many office-based projects as well as a significant number of wellsite projects.