Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
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, …