Paleobiology Commons^™

Testing The Temporal Stability Of The Climate Response Of Tree Species At Norris Dam State Park, Tennessee, U.S.A., Allison Elizabeth Ingram

Masters Theses

Temporal stability of the climate-tree growth relationship means that over time, tree species were responding to a specific climate variable and continue to respond to that variable into the present. The stability of this response is important to test prior to attempting to reconstruct past climate. In this study, I sampled oaks (white oak = Quercus alba L. and chestnut oak = Quercus montana Willd.) and pines (Virginia pine = Pinus virginiana Mill. and shortleaf pine = Pinus echinata Mill.) growing in Norris Dam State Park in eastern Tennessee and tested the temporal stability of these species and their potential …

Micropaleontology And Isotope Stratigraphy Of The Upper Aptian To Lower Cenomanian (~114-98 Ma) In Odp Site 763, Exmouth Plateau, Nw Australia, Ali Alibrahim

Masters Theses

The biostratigraphy and isotope stratigraphy of the upper Aptian to lower Cenomanian interval including oceanic anoxic events OAE1b, 1c and 1d are investigated in ODP Site 763, drilled on the Exmouth Plateau offshore northwest Australia. Benthic foraminifera suggest that Site 763 was situated in outer neritic to upper bathyal water depths (~150-600 m). OAEs of the Atlantic basin and Tethys are typically associated with organic carbon-rich black shales and δ¹³C excursions. However, OAEs at this high latitude site correlate with ocean acidification and/or pyrite formation under anoxic conditions rather than black shales. Ocean acidification maybe responsible for sporadic …

Low Resolution Examination Of Cool-Water Carbonate Foraminifera Around Tasmania During The Pleistocene, Sara Jane Hughes

Masters Theses

Benthic foraminifera from nine sediment samples recovered during Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Leg 189: The Tasman Gateway were examined to determine how changing Southern Ocean conditions affect benthic foraminiferal populations. All samples come from Site 1168 situated 70km from the coast of Tasmania on the western continental slope (2463 m below the surface) and are spaced at roughly 150,000 years apart. Identifications of benthic foraminifera were done with a dissecting microscope and several reference books. Foraminifera were correlated with environmental proxy data obtained from Brughmans (2003) (total organic carbon, carbonate, siliciclastics, coarse fractions, chlorin, barium, aluminum, iron, and titanium) and …

A Morphological And Geochemical Investigation Of Grypania Spiralis: Implications For Early Earth Evolution, Miles Anthony Henderson

Masters Theses

Macroscopic “carbonaceous” fossils such as Grypania, Katnia, Chuaria, and Tawuia play a critical role in our understanding of biological evolution in the Precambrian and their environmental implications. Unfortunately, understanding of these fossils remains limited by their relative simplicity of form, mode of preservation, and broad taphonomic variability. As a result, debate continues as to even the fundamental taxonomic affinity of the organisms. Megascopic coiled forms (i.e. Grypania and Katnia), for instance, have been interpreted as trace fossils, multicellular algae, prokaryotic filaments, macroscopic bacteria, cyanobacteria, or a transitional form from macroscopic to megascopic bacterial life. Similarly, Chuaria …

The First Documentation Of A Lower Middle Pennsylvanian Upland Flora From The Eastern Margin Of The Eastern Interior Basin (Illinois Basin), Vicki J. Comer

Masters Theses

The primary objective of this study is to reconstruct the paleofloristics of an unnamed shale of lower Middle Pennsylvanian age. The shale is periodically exposed in the highwall of the Ashboro Pit, Log Cabin Coal Company, Clay County, Indiana. This will be the first upland fossil flora to be described from the eastern margin of the Eastern Interior Basin (Illinois Basin). The gray shale containing the upland flora lies directly above the Upper Block Coal (SW 1/4, SE 1/4, sec. 17, T. 11N., R. 6W.)

Two collections, collected on three different occasions were made available for analysis: Smithsonian Natural …

Flotation Data Sampling Strategies In Archaeological Research: An Experiment At The Elam Site (20ae195), Allegan County, Michigan, Brian David Deroo

Masters Theses

Studies of prehistoric Native American subsistence patterns have benefited greatly from data recovered through the technique of flotation, which allows investigators to recover small scale organic remains which would otherwise be missed using standard excavation procedures. Using data recovered through flotation researchers have been able to more fairly evaluate the role of plant foods, both wild and cultivated, in the aboriginal diet.

A common method of obtaining a flotation sample is to define a column through the center of the cultural feature or midden and removing a specified volume of soil matrix (usually 10 liters) from this column. This thesis …

The Paleoethnobotany Of Schwerdt (20ae127): An Early Fifteenth Century Encampment In The Lower Kalamazoo River Valley, Gregory R. Walz

Masters Theses

Carbonized macrobotanical remains from the Schwerdt Site, an Upper Mississippian sturgeon fishery in the Lower Kalamazoo River Valley are identified and analyzed in terms of their implications for localized subsistence-settlement systems operating during the Berrien Phase in southwestern Michigan. The exploitation of wild plant foods at this limited-activity, spring sturgeon fishery and the environmental composition of the site environs are reconstructed from their representation in flotation samples derived from excavated feature and midden contexts.

Botanical data indicate a strong wetland-aquatic orientation in plant procurement, with aquatic tubers being the primary plant resource exploited at the site. Data from several sites …

Conodonts Of The Mecca Quarry Shale, Timothy Charles O'Neill

Masters Theses

Conodonts were found to be abundant in the Middle Pennsylvanian, Mecca Quarry Shale, Parke County, Indiana. Nine forms were identified in this black fissile shale from a locality along Montgomery Creek near the town of Mecca. These elements are: Hindeodella parva, Idiognathodus delacatus, Gondolella sp. a, Ozarkodina delacatula, Lonchodina clarki, Ligonodina typa, Lonchodus simplex, Metalonchodina bidentata, and Neoprioniodus conjunctus.

Ratios of elements to each other were determined and used to arrive at an idea of what conodont assemblages were present. At least three asemblages are presented; Scottognathus, Duboisella, and Illinella …

The Fauna And Paleoecology Of The Charleston Quarry Shale, James Karl Gilliam

Masters Theses

The fauna and paleoecology of a late-Pennsylvanian shale contained in the Livingston Limestone of eastern Illinois is here defined. The name, Charleston quarry shale, is informally used for this shale in the area of the Charleston Stone Company quarry, northeast of Charleston, Illinois (SEC. 32, T. 13N., R. 10E., Coles Co.).

The fauna consists mostly of bryozoans, brachiopods and crinoids distributed throughout three distinct zones in the Charleston quarry shale. This fauna inhabited an offshore quiet bottom area in a shallow, warm, marine epicontinental sea which covered the area in the late-Pennsylvanian geologic period. The depth of water above the …

Squillites Spinosus (Syncarida, Malacostraca) And A New Unnamed Crustacean From The Mississippian Of Central Montana, Joan Matthews Rumore

Masters Theses

A Mississippian syncarid from the Heath shale, Squillites spinosus Scott, 1938, is redescribed and a discussion of some aspects of Syncarid phylogeny is given. Modern Syncarid biogeographical distribution is discussed and an analysis of these zoogeographical patterns is provided. A strange animal, Crustacea (incerta sedis) from the Heath shale is described in as far as is possible.

In 1971, Dr. Richard Lund of the University of Pittsburgh while searching for fossil fish in the Upper Mississippian Heath Shale of Montana found the associated remains of fossil crustaceans. Two locations were involved, T14 N R20E sec. 28, Fergus County, Montana, 2 …