Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 23: The Jersey Devil, And Friends, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

For nearly three hundred years reports have surfaced of a purported cryptid form known as the ‘Jersey devil.’ In this work an interpretation of the goals of biogeography is given, and how this field can be related to such alleged phenomena, as well as to some of the ideas of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) that seem to find their origin in the writings of Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677).

Understanding The Microbial Biogeography Of Ancient Human Dentitions To Guide Study Design And Interpretation, Zandra Fagernäs, Domingo C. Salazar-Garcia, Maria Hadar Uriarte, Azucena Avilés Fernández, Amanda G. Henry, Joaquín Lomba Maurandi, Andrew T. Ozga, Irina M. Velsko, Christina Warinner

Biology Faculty Articles

The oral cavity is a heterogeneous environment, varying in factors such as pH, oxygen levels, and salivary flow. These factors affect the microbial community composition and distribution of species in dental plaque, but it is not known how well these patterns are reflected in archaeological dental calculus. In most archaeological studies, a single sample of dental calculus is studied per individual and is assumed to represent the entire oral cavity. However, it is not known if this sampling strategy introduces biases into studies of the ancient oral microbiome. Here, we present the results of a shotgun metagenomic study of a …

A Tale Of Two Species: Black-Tailed And White-Tailed Prairie Dog Biogeography From The Last Interglacial To 2070, April Dawn Bledsoe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological niche models (ENMs) were created for White-tailed and Black-tailed prairie dogs and projected into the Last Interglacial (LI), the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and mid-Holocene (mid-H) to discern possible past suitable habitat for both species. Additionally, ENMs were projected into the future year 2070 representative concentration pathways (RCPs) 2.6 and 8.5 to discern how climate change may affect future habitat suitability. Kernel density estimations, minimum convex polygons, and median distribution centers of White-tailed and Black-tailed occurrence records were examined between time-periods to discern the effects of anthropogenic westward expansion on both species’ distributions. Current ENMs were constructed from commonly …

Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) Brachiopods And Trilobites From Thompson Creek, Northwest Nelson, New Zealand, Ian G. Percival, Anthony J. Wright, Roger A. Cooper, John E. Simes, Yong Yi Zhen

Anthony Wright

A well preserved Middle Ordovician shelly fauna, represented by twelve species of lingulate brachiopods and one trilobite genus, was recovered from an allochthonous limestone lens exposed in Thompson Creek, northwest of Nelson, on the South Island of New Zealand. The stratigraphic setting is unclear as the limestone is situated in the Takaka Terrane adjacent to the Anatoki Fault, separating this terrane from the Buller Terrane. The original depositional environment of the limestone is interpreted as relatively deep water (outer shelf to upper slope). Lingulate brachiopods described include the new species Hyperobolus? thompsonensis sp. nov., Cyrtonotreta robusta sp. nov., Scaphelasma paturauensis …

Biosphere-Human Feedbacks: A Physical Geography Perspective, George P. Malanson

George P Malanson

Integrating, Developing, And Testing Methods To Generate More Cohesive Approaches To Biogeographic Inference, Mallory Elizabeth Eckstut

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

As a fundamental component of the developing discipline of conservation biogeography, broadscale analyses of biotic assembly and disassembly across multiple temporal and spatial scales provide an enhanced understanding of how geologic transformations and climate oscillations have shaped extant patterns of biodiversity. As with any scientific field, there are limitations in the case of biogeographic historical reconstructions. Historical reconstructions are only as robust as the theoretical underpinnings of the methods of reconstruction (including data collection, quality, analysis, and interpretation). Nevertheless, historical reconstructions of species distributions can help inform our understanding of how species respond to environmental change.

My dissertation takes a …

Wallace: The Review, And Wallace: The Preview, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

In this essay commemorating the one hundred year anniversary of his death, Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is remembered for his main contributions to biogeography, and pointed to as a possible source of inspiration for future work in that field. As one of the science’s “fathers,” Wallace established both methods for study and a long-lived geographical systemization of animal distribution patterns. His efforts, moreover, may yet have the potential to inspire further new studies in the subject.

Some Biogeographers, Evolutionists And Ecologists: Chrono-Biographical Sketches, Charles H. Smith, Joshua Woleben, Carubie Rodgers

DLPS Faculty Publications

Each name in the following list of naturalists is linked to a corresponding capsule "chrono-biographical" sketch of that individual prepared by the authors. Coverage extends from approximately 1950 backward in time as far as the eighteenth century; figures from all over the world are included (though there is admittedly a decided Anglo-American bias). The target subject here is biogeography, but this being a broad field there are many persons on the list who are better known as climatologists, zoologists, botanists, ecologists, oceanographers, paleontologists, etc.--in other words, who made their main reputations in cognate disciplines.

This service has been set up …

An Approach To The Virtual Flora Of Mongolia – From A Data Repository To An Expert System, Http://Greif.Uni-Greifswald.De/Floragreif/, Jörg Hartleib, Martin Schnittler, Sabrina Rilke, Anne Zemmrich, Bernd Bobertz, Ulrike Najmi, Reinhard Zölitz, Susanne Starke

Erforschung biologischer Ressourcen der Mongolei / Exploration into the Biological Resources of Mongolia, ISSN 0440-1298

FloraGREIF is an internet accessible information system providing taxonomic, phytogeographic and ecological information on Mongolia’s flora in terms of descriptions, high-resolution plant images and an interactive WebGIS application. Organised along an updated checklist of the approx. 3000 Mongolian vascular plants that serves as a taxonomic backbone, information is split into the taxon level, referring to plant species, and the record level, referring to record or a collected plant specimen. At the latter level, images of living plants, scans of herbarium sheets, habitat photos and further notes can be found. Both data levels are linked by the name of the respective …

Systematics, Biogeography And Leaf Anatomy And Architecture Of Bursera Subgen. Bursera (Burseraceae) In The Greater Antilles And The Bahamas, María Cristina Martínez-Habibe

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive study on the origin and evolutionary relationships of the species of Bursera in Cuba, Hispaniola, Jamaica and the Bahamas. The goals of the first chapter were to test monophyly of the group, revisit a recent transfer of two species of Bursera to Commiphora, and place recently discovered mainland species using the reconstructed phylogenies. Additionally, divergence estimations using fossils were used as independent tests of several hypotheses regarding the arrival of the modern biota to the Greater Antilles and Bahamas (GAB). I conclude that all endemic taxonomic entities of the genus in this region belong …

Profiles In Science For Science Librarians: "What Lives Where, And Why": Alfred Russel Wallace, And The Field Of Biogeography, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Biogeography, the study of animal and plant distribution, has a history extending back to at least the eighteenth century. But it was not until the work of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-nineteenth century that it really came into its own as a science. Darwin’s importance notwithstanding, it was really Wallace who put the field on the map, and many of today’s research threads can be traced back to his influence. This article provides a summary review of Wallace’s life and work and biogeography as a field of study, including Wallace’s role in its development.

On The Physical Geography Of The Malay Archipelago (1863), Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace Classic Writings

No abstract provided.

On The Law Which Has Regulated The Introduction Of New Species (1855), Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace Classic Writings

No abstract provided.

Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) Brachiopods And Trilobites From Thompson Creek, Northwest Nelson, New Zealand, Ian G. Percival, Anthony J. Wright, Roger A. Cooper, John E. Simes, Yong Yi Zhen

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

A well preserved Middle Ordovician shelly fauna, represented by twelve species of lingulate brachiopods and one trilobite genus, was recovered from an allochthonous limestone lens exposed in Thompson Creek, northwest of Nelson, on the South Island of New Zealand. The stratigraphic setting is unclear as the limestone is situated in the Takaka Terrane adjacent to the Anatoki Fault, separating this terrane from the Buller Terrane. The original depositional environment of the limestone is interpreted as relatively deep water (outer shelf to upper slope). Lingulate brachiopods described include the new species Hyperobolus? thompsonensis sp. nov., Cyrtonotreta robusta sp. nov., Scaphelasma paturauensis …

Identification And Distribution Of Masked And Hayden's Shrews (Genus Sorex) In Iowa, Howard P. Whidden, Alison W. Ray, John B. Bowles

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

Masked shrews (Sorex cinereus) and Hayden's shrews (S. haydeni) are both reported from Iowa, but the two species are difficult to tell apart and their relative distributions in Iowa have been unclear. We took 13 skull measurements and examined 2 qualitative features on more than 300 specimens of Sorex from Iowa. The vast majority of our specimens could be identified easily by cranial measurements, and more than half could be identified by the relative position of the maxillary plate. We found no evidence for intergradation between the two species. Masked shrews are present throughout most of Iowa, whereas Hayden's shrews …

Mammals Of Iowa: Holocene To The End Of The 20th Century, John B. Bowles, Daryl L. Howell, Richard P. Lampe, Howard P. Whidden

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

This review of Iowa's mammal fauna at the close of the 20th century summarizes changes in distributional patterns following Euroamerican settlement in the early 1800s. Data from historical records, museum specimens, and presettlement late Holocene fossils indicate presence of 69 resident mammals at that time. Hunting pressures and the conversion of prairie and forest to agricultural fields reduced the populations and ranges of many state mammals, and 14 species were extirpated by 1900. An additional 15 species are either uncommon or rare today, and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources lists four species as endangered, three as threatened and one …

Introduction: One Hundred Years Of Natural History In Turkmenistan, Victor Fet

Biological Sciences Faculty Research

As part of the famous “Great Game” between the Russian and British Empires in Central Asia, Turkmenistan was the last colonial prize of the Russian tsars; its delineation from Afghanistan was completed only in the 1890s. The Russian Empire’s Transcaspian Region (Zakaspiiskaya Oblast) was roughly what Turkmenistan is today; its neighbors were the semi-independent emirate of Bokhara to the east and khanate of Khiva to the north, both remnants of medieval Muslim empires.

This book combines the results of basic scientific research in biogeography and ecology; its purpose is to give a fairly comprehensive account of the nature of Turkmenistan. …

Historical Biogeography: Geography As Evolution, Evolution As Geography, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

Despite a number of advances in recent years, biogeography remains a field with a poorly developed philosophical core. As a result, its historical and ecological sides remain as isolated from one another as ever. In this essay I argue that a more unified approach to biogeographic studies will become possible only when workers realise that it is necessary to reject absolute space, "geography as handmaiden" approaches to distribution problems in favour of structuralist models compatible with both probabilistic spatial interaction and deterministic phylogenetic kinds of thinking. Pros and cons of regionalist, vicariance, and panbiogeographic approaches are weighed in this regard; …

A System Of World Mammal Faunal Regions Pt. 1. Logical And Statistical Derivation Of The Regions, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A System Of World Mammal Faunal Regions Pt. 2.The Distance Decay Effect Upon Inter-Regional Affinities, Charles H. Smith

DLPS Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.