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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Characterizing The Vegetation And Effects Of Climate Change On Parris Island, A Sea Island Ecosystem, Cody Hart Goodson Jan 2023

Characterizing The Vegetation And Effects Of Climate Change On Parris Island, A Sea Island Ecosystem, Cody Hart Goodson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Coastal habitats provide many ecosystem services, protecting coastlines from storm surges and erosion, diminishing the effects of eutrophication, sequestering large amounts of carbon, and acting as vital wildlife habitat. Sea-level rise and increased storm surge intensity associated with climate change are increasingly disrupting coastal habitats. These disturbances can shift environmental gradients that drive the zonation of coastal vegetation types, driving habitat conversion. Monitoring coastal habitat conversion can improve our understanding of the dynamic effects of climate change on these landscapes. Therefore, our objectives for chapter 1 were to identify and describe the distributions of vegetation types present on Marine Corps …


An Exceptionally Small New Polycotylid Plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) With Raptorial Eyes From The Western Interior Seaway Of North America, Robert O’Brien Clark Jan 2021

An Exceptionally Small New Polycotylid Plesiosaur (Reptilia: Sauropterygia) With Raptorial Eyes From The Western Interior Seaway Of North America, Robert O’Brien Clark

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Polycotylidae is a family of plesiosaurian marine reptiles that evolved during the Early Cretaceous and radiated into multiple genera during the Late Cretaceous, achieving a worldwide distribution. Derived polycotylids of the subclade Polycotylinae have a gracile and elongated rostrum, homodont dentition, an extended mandibular symphysis, and foreshortened temporal fenestrae. In this thesis, I describe a small and highly derived new polycotylid taxon based on three specimens from the Campanian of the Western Interior Seaway in North America. A high number of maxillary teeth, fused neural arches, propodials with well-defined facets, and heavily remodeled cortical bone indicate the specimens are adults, …


Analyzing Pterosaur Ontogeny And Sexual Dimorphism With Multivariate Allometry, Erick Charles Anderson Jan 2016

Analyzing Pterosaur Ontogeny And Sexual Dimorphism With Multivariate Allometry, Erick Charles Anderson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The relationships of pterosaurs have been previously inferred from observed traits, depositional environments, and phylogenetic associations. A great deal of research has begun to analyze pterosaur ontogeny, mass estimates, wing dynamics, and sexual dimorphism in the last two decades. The latter has received the least attention because of the large data set required for statistical analyses. Analyzing pterosaurs using osteological measurements will reveal different aspects of size and shape variation in Pterosauria (in place of character states) and sexual dimorphism when present. Some of these variations, not easily recognized visually, will be observed using multivariate allometry methods including Principle Component …