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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Analyzing The Shark Paleoecology Of Coastal Georgia From The Miocene And Pliocene Epochs, Joshua Lee Clark, Benjamin Angalet
Analyzing The Shark Paleoecology Of Coastal Georgia From The Miocene And Pliocene Epochs, Joshua Lee Clark, Benjamin Angalet
Georgia Journal of Science
The field of shark paleoecology often yields indecisive conclusions based on the limited fossilization of their anatomical structures, with the exception of their teeth. The majority of the Atlantic coast has been studied regarding the presence of certain prehistoric shark species from the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene epochs. However, information pertaining to the Georgia coast and understanding its potential community structure is relatively understudied. This study was conducted in which thousands of fossil shark specimens and subsequent marine fauna were collected from dredge spoils created by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE): Savannah District. A total of 5,127 fossil …
Ecological Controls On The Campanian Distribution Of Hesperornis (Aves: Hesperornithiformes) In The Western Interior Seaway, Blake Chapman
Ecological Controls On The Campanian Distribution Of Hesperornis (Aves: Hesperornithiformes) In The Western Interior Seaway, Blake Chapman
Master's Theses
The epicontinental Western Interior Seaway (WIS) of Late Cretaceous North America provided a unique marine habitat for cephalopods, fish, marine reptiles, and the foot-propelled diving seabird Hesperornis. While several predator-prey relationships among Hesperornis or other hesperornithiforms and other WIS animals have been hypothesized based on gut contents, bite marks, and coprolites/colonites, ecological relationships have not been quantitatively tested. Paleontological species distribution modeling (SDM) studies have focused on extinct non-marine taxa and marine invertebrates, with only two marine vertebrate studies of extant taxa. Here, two SDM methods were used to test the influence of vertebrate faunas, sedimentary rock type, paleogeography, …
Curation Techniques Of Small-Sized Natural History Specimens: A Collection Of Microfossils., Zachary V Biven-Leslie, Guillermo W. Rougier
Curation Techniques Of Small-Sized Natural History Specimens: A Collection Of Microfossils., Zachary V Biven-Leslie, Guillermo W. Rougier
Undergraduate Arts and Research Showcase
Small-sized fossil specimens are challenging regarding safety, storage and traceability of information. A recent collection of several hundred minute early mammalian teeth and jaws (most about 1mm) made impossible the standard practices of specimen numbering. A reliable association of the specimen and the collection number is the minimum required, however, a number of other data easily recoverable from the specimen/curating material is desirable. Geological provenance, locality, systematic and anatomical ID, collector, year, etc. is often included if possible. Use of the specimen is expected to be on the order of hundreds of years, manipulated by investigators, transported, and stored in …
Ashfall Fossil Beds: From Waterhole To Rhino Barn, Sandy Mosel
Ashfall Fossil Beds: From Waterhole To Rhino Barn, Sandy Mosel
University of Nebraska State Museum: Programs Information
Twelve million years ago a volcanic super-eruption in what is now southwestern Idaho created an enormous ashfall that blanketed the Great Plains with several inches of volcanic ash, devastating the local wildlife. Evidence of this geologic event lies within the hills of the Niobrara River Valley in northeast Nebraska, at a place aptly named the Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. Located near the tiny village of Royal, the Ashfall Park has been developed around a waterhole where animals succumbed after breathing in the volcanic dust. Buried deeply by windblown volcanic ash in the weeks following the eruption, the skeletons …
Exploring The Origins Of Secondary Growth – Two Lower Devonian (Emsian) Euphyllophytes From Gaspé, Canada, And Their Implications For The Evolution Of Secondary Growth, Kelly C. Pfeiler
Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects
Secondary growth from a vascular cambium has a deep fossil record among euphyllophytes, with the earliest occurrence dated to 407 Ma. To date, Armoricaphyton and Franhueberia represent the only instances of secondary growth formally documented in the Early Devonian. Secondary growth diversified rapidly and was present in all major euphyllophyte lineages by the Middle Devonian. Here, I describe two new Early Devonian euphyllophytes exhibiting secondary growth, from the Emsian (c. 400-395 Ma) Battery Point Formation (Québec, Canada): Gmujij tetraxylopteroides gen. et sp. nov. and Perplexa praestigians gen et sp. nov. Both these plants possess mesarch actinosteles with Psilophyton-type …
An Assessment Of Convergence In The Feeding Morphology Of Xiphactinus Audax And Megalops Atlanticus Using Landmark-Based Geometric Morphometrics, Edward Chase Shelburne
An Assessment Of Convergence In The Feeding Morphology Of Xiphactinus Audax And Megalops Atlanticus Using Landmark-Based Geometric Morphometrics, Edward Chase Shelburne
Master's Theses
Convergence is an evolutionary phenomenon wherein distantly related organisms independently develop features or functional adaptations to overcome similar environmental constraints. Historically, convergence among organisms has been speculated or asserted with little rigorous or quantitative investigation. More recent advancements in systematics has allowed for the detection and study of convergence in a phylogenetic context, but this does little to elucidate convergent anatomical features in extinct taxa with poorly understood evolutionary histories. The purpose of this study is to investigate one potentially convergent system—the feeding structure of Xiphactinus audax (Teleostei: Ichthyodectiformes) and Megalops atlanticus (Teleostei: Elopiformes)—using a comparative anatomical approach to assess …
Crossed Tracks: Mesolimulus, Archaeopteryx, And The Nature Of Fossils, Leonard Finkelman
Crossed Tracks: Mesolimulus, Archaeopteryx, And The Nature Of Fossils, Leonard Finkelman
Faculty Publications
Organisms leave a variety of traces in the fossil record. Among these traces, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontologists conventionally recognize a distinction between the remains of an organism’s phenotype (body fossils) and the remains of an organism’s life activities (trace fossils). The same convention recognizes body fossils as biological structures and trace fossils as geological objects. This convention explains some curious practices in the classification, as with the distinction between taxa for trace fossils and for tracemakers. I consider the distinction between “parallel taxonomies,” or parataxonomies, which privileges some kinds of fossil taxa as “natural” and others as “artificial.” The motivations …
Developing Criteria For Identifying Fossil Raindrop Prints, April Menendez
Developing Criteria For Identifying Fossil Raindrop Prints, April Menendez
The Research and Scholarship Symposium (2013-2019)
Raindrop imprints have been identified many times in the rock record as stated in papers by Rindsberg, Shul’ga 2004 and Kahle 2009. However, there is a question of whether those raindrops have been determined accurately or if the spherical depressions are caused by some other occurrence. Studies by Twenhofel have been done that describe raindrop prints in modern sediment, and the research conducted during this project continues to broaden that field of information. During this research project, experiments were carried out to collect the appearance of raindrop prints in sand, both wet and dry. After photographs of the imprints were …
Ichnology And Paleoecology Of The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, Heather Marie Stoller
Ichnology And Paleoecology Of The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, Heather Marie Stoller
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
In this study I describe and interpret tracks and trackways of the Jurassic Aztec Sandstone of southern Nevada and southern California. This study involved mapping of all known tracks and trackways, including foot length, stride length, and trackway width. Photogrammetric data, collected by Bureau of Land Management scientists, were utilized for several trackways in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
More than three hundred tracks belonging to five ichnotaxa were documented within the Aztec Sandstone, including about 165 tridactylGrallator, 250 tetradactyl (four-toed)Brasilichniumtracks, and 7 arthropod trackways ofOctopodichnusandPaleohelcura. Four of the five ichnotaxa were not previously reported from the Aztec Sandstone. …
Paleoecology Of Late Pleistocene Megaherbivores: Stable Isotope Reconstruction Of Environment, Climate, And Response, Aubrey Mae Bonde
Paleoecology Of Late Pleistocene Megaherbivores: Stable Isotope Reconstruction Of Environment, Climate, And Response, Aubrey Mae Bonde
UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones
Late Pleistocene megaherbivore communities of the Pacific and Mountain West states of California and Nevada are under-analyzed in regard to ecological function (diet, mobility, niche partitioning, and range of ecological tolerance). Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool that is known to recover primary paleodiet and paleoenvironmental information from biogenic materials, such as enamel and dentin. This dissertation explores the use of carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in Late Pleistocene (40-10 Ka) megaherbivore teeth to gain a better understanding of inter- and intra-specific behavior and reconstruct Late Pleistocene ecosystems of California and Nevada. Radiocarbon dates exist for most of the …
Towards Space Based Verification Of Co2 Emissions From Strong Localized Sources: Fossil Fuel Power Plant Emissions As Seen By A Carbonsat Constellation, Voltaire A. Velazco, M Buchwitz, H Bovensmann, M Reuter, O Schneising, J P. Heymann, T Krings, K Gerilowski, John P. Burrows
Towards Space Based Verification Of Co2 Emissions From Strong Localized Sources: Fossil Fuel Power Plant Emissions As Seen By A Carbonsat Constellation, Voltaire A. Velazco, M Buchwitz, H Bovensmann, M Reuter, O Schneising, J P. Heymann, T Krings, K Gerilowski, John P. Burrows
Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)
No abstract provided.
The Geological Context Of Middle Pleistocene Crater Lake Deposits And Fossil Birds At Ulupau Head, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, Paul Hearty, H. F. James, S. L. Olson
The Geological Context Of Middle Pleistocene Crater Lake Deposits And Fossil Birds At Ulupau Head, Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, Paul Hearty, H. F. James, S. L. Olson
Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)
Pleistocene lake deposits in Ulupau Crater on Oahu contain the oldest fossil bird remains known from the Hawaiian Islands. These fossils are important for documenting evolutionary rates in a variety of lineages of land and water birds from the islands. Detailed stratigraphic analysis reveals distinct cycles of deposition involving interbedded lacustrine deposits, colluvium, and paleosols. The volcanic basin was breached by marine erosion prior to the peak of the last interglaciation (marine isotope stage or ‘MIS’ 5e) over 125 ky ago, constraining the age of the lake sediments to the middle Pleistocene. The three cycles of deposition (Units III, IV, …
The Helioporacean Octocoral Epiphaxum, Recent And Fossil: A Monographic Iconography, Frederick M. Bayer
The Helioporacean Octocoral Epiphaxum, Recent And Fossil: A Monographic Iconography, Frederick M. Bayer
Studies in Tropical Oceanography
No abstract provided.
Climatic Implications Of Barbados Coral Growth, Richard E. Dodge, Karl K. Turekian, J. Rimas Vaisnys
Climatic Implications Of Barbados Coral Growth, Richard E. Dodge, Karl K. Turekian, J. Rimas Vaisnys
Marine & Environmental Sciences Faculty Proceedings, Presentations, Speeches, Lectures
Results from a coral growth band analysis utilizing samples of M. annularis from the Recent Barbados reef and from three fossil raised reefs (Barbados I, II, and III dated at 82,000, 105,000, and 125,000 yrs. B.P.) indicate that in the Barbados II collection both average band width and variability were lower than in the other samples. We suggest the climate during formation of the 105,000 yrs. B.P. reef was significantly different than that of the present.