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Devonian Stromatoporoid Interactions At The Falls Of The Ohio State Park, Clarksville, Indiana, Morgan Sierra Hall

Undergraduate Theses

Stromatoporoids are calcitic sponges that occurred in the fossil record from the Early Ordovician to Late Devonian period. These sponges interacted with other organisms, especially rugose and tabulate corals. Some corals appear to benefit from the rigidity of stromatoporoids in response to turbulent waters. Stromatoporoids and many corals went extinct during the Frasnian-Famennian crisis when paleoenvironmental parameters were shifting. Studying the relationships between these taxa may provide insight to their vulnerability during the extinction.

This research was performed at the Falls of the Ohio in Clarksville, Indiana. Organisms in the Coral Zone were studied using transect sampling. Each fossil along …

Constraining Neogene Temperature And Precipitation Histories In The Central Great Plains Using The Fossil Record Of Alligator, Evan Whiting

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Most amphibians and reptiles (excluding birds) are poikilothermic; their internal body temperature varies with that of their external environment. This makes them useful as climate proxies, especially when linked to geographic distributions of ambient climate. I evaluate the utility of the extant crocodylian genus Alligator as a paleoclimate proxy for the Central Great Plains (CGP) using species distribution modeling. Alligator is a readily identifiable taxon with a good CGP fossil record during the Neogene (~23–2.6 Ma). Alligator first appeared in the CGP in the late Eocene (~37 Ma), was absent during most of the Oligocene, reappeared in the early Miocene …

A Graphic Résumé Of The Pleistocene Of Nebraska (With Notes On The Fossil Mammalian Remains), C. Bertrand Schultz, Gilbert C. Lueninghoener, W. D. Frankforter

Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum

I T SEEMS desirable at this time to present a graphic resume of the Nebraska Pleistocene, together with a summary of the stratigraphic sequences of the fossil vertebrates. This report is based on data taken from various publications' in addition to information gathered by the present writers during the past fifteen or more field seasons. Intensive work has been done in the past five years in connection with recovery of paleontological material in the areas where government dams are under construction (Schultz, Lueninghoener, and Frankforter, 1948; Schultz and Frankforter, 1948; Holder and Wike, 1949). The information in the present paper …

The Geologic History Of The Bison In The Great Plains (A Preliminary Report), C. Bertrand Schultz, W. D. Frankforter

Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum

THE GEOLOGIC history of the bison in North America is a subject which has received little attention to date. Osteological rather than geological problems have been the main concern of most writers who have so far published. If the geologic history of the bison is to be learned, it will be necessary to devote more time and effort in the field in determining the age of the deposits in which various specimens have been discovered and in making more extensive collections from deposits of known age. Unfortunately the majority of the type specimens have been surface finds and little attempt …

Prosthennops Xiphodonticus, Sp. Nov. A New Fossil Peccary From Nebraska, Erwin H. Barbour

Bulletin of the University of Nebraska State Museum

During the field season of 1915, while collecting, a mile or two west of Valentine, Cherry County, Nebraska, Messrs. A. C. Whitford and J. B. Burnett secured for the Morrill-Maiben Palaeontological Collections, The Nebraska State Museum, The University of Nebraska, a finely preserved jaw of a small fossil hog, or peccary, belonging to the genus Frosthennops, accessioned No. 85-11-8-15B. & W.

The mandible under consideration was preserved in fine sand and is without blemish save that the condyle and coronoid are wanting. The dentition is perfect. In allusion to the sword-like tusks, which are unduly large, the species name xiphodonticus …