Life Sciences Commons^™

Saber-Toothed Cats From The Plio-Pleistocene Of Nebraska, Larry D. Martin, C. B. Schultz, M. R. Schultz

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Dinobastis is reported from the late Pleistocene of Nebraska, and Smilodon from the middle through the late Pleistocene. lschyrosmilus is a synonym of Homotherium, but Dinobastis is not. lschyrosmilus should not be confused with "Smilodon" gracilis, which is considered an advanced species of Megantereon.

Late Pleistocene Pronghorn, Antilocapra Americana, From Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, John Chorn, Barbara A. Frase, Carl D. Frailey

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, has yielded one of the more reliable records of Antilocapra from the Late Pleistocene of North America. Generic assignment is based on horn cores from two individuals, with a minimum of 13 individuals represented by other elements. Morphometric analysis of postcranial material indicates that this form is indistinguishable from the living A. americana. Fossils were recovered from a stratum dated at 17,000-20,000 yr BP. Presence of Antilocapra at other sites is probably over-reported. Secure records based on horn cores are known from only two other sites. Antilocapra americana may have been the preferred prey of …

The Vascular Flora Of The Niobrara Valley Preserve And Adjacent Areas In Nebraska, Steven P. Churchill, Craig C. Feeman, Gail E. Kantak

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Niobrara Valley Preserve is a 219 km² area along the Niobrara River in north-central Nebraska. Five hundred eighty-one species of vascular plants, about one-third of the total known from Nebraska, are recorded from the Preserve. They are distributed among 332 genera in 105 families. The floristic richness of this area may be attributed to two major factors: 1) a unique surface and subsurface geology has produced hydrologic and pedologic conditions amenable to a variety of plant communities; 2) Pleistocene and post-Pleistocene climates were critical in determining the co-occurrence of diverse vegetation types in the Niobrara River Valley. Among …

An Annotated List Of The Vascular Plants Of Fontenelle Forest And Neale Woods In Eastern Nebraska, Marjorie Mueller Garabrandt

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

No detailed listing of the complete vascular flora of any woodland site along the Missouri River of east-central Nebraska has been published. This study provides a current annotated list of vascular flora at two private nature centers in the Omaha area, Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods. Totaling about 644 hectares, the two preserves are located on loess bluffs adjacent to the Missouri River valley, with Fontenelle Forest also containing floodplain forest. A total of 597 species are distributed among 100 families and 331 genera between the two sites, representing approximately one-third of the known vascular flora for Nebraska. Comparisons are …

Roscoe Pound And The Seminarium Botanicum At The University Of Nebraska, 1888-1889, Michael R. Hill

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Roscoe Pound (1870-1964) became one of America's leading legal scholars, but few recall his rigorous training in botany. Those who do most often cite his 1898 joint doctoral thesis (The Phytogeography of Nebraska, co-authored with Frederic Clements), but fail to note his first graduate work of a decade earlier. Roscoe Pound's master's thesis, "The Imperfect Fungi of Nebraska," was researched and written during the 1888-1889 academic year. Although the thesis itself is now lost, its content and the circumstances under which it was written can be established by using archival materials. Pound's role in leading the student …

Lagomorphs (Mammalia) From The Oligocene (Orellan And Whitneyan) Brule Formation, Nebraska, William W. Korth, Jeffrey Hageman

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Analysis of a stratigraphically-controlled sample of over 2,000 lagomorph specimens in the University of Nebraska State Museum, collected from sediments in the Brule Formation (Oligocene) of Sioux and Scotts Bluff Counties. Nebraska, indicates biostratigraphic and evolutionary changes in the lagomorph fauna throughout the Orellan of Nebraska.

A new species, Palaeolagus hemirhizis, described from the Orella A horizon, is intermediate between the typical Orellan species P. haydeni and the Chadronian species P. temnodon from Montana, Wyoming, and Saskatchewan. Palaeolagus haydeni and P. burkei show almost complete overlap in size range of cheek teeth. with the means of the measurements for …

A Water-Quality Assessment Using Aquatic Macroinvertebrates From Streams Of The Long Pine Creek Watershed In Brown County, Nebraska, Terry R. Maret

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The macro invertebrate communities of Long Pine and Bone creeks were assessed between July, 1979, and October, 1982, as part of a water-quality monitoring program of the Long Pine watershed. At least 125 and 90 taxa were collected from Long Pine and Bone creeks, respectively. Data were summarized for the six collection sites by density, taxonomic composition, and species diversity. A biotic index, modified for Nebraska waters, was used to describe the biological integrity of streams sampled. The findings are discussed in relation to observed water-quality degradation and land-use practices. Analysis showed a slight trend of impaired water quality from …

A New Species Of Aphodius (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Aphodiinae) From Nebraska, Brett C. Ratcliffe

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Aphodius gordoni Ratcliffe, new species, is described from the Sandhills of Nebraska. Its larval stages and life history remain unkown. but it may be a sand detritivore.

The Vascular Flora And Plant Communities Of Seward County, Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

A recent botanical survey of Seward County in southeastern Nebraska recognizes ten representative plant communities including four major vegetation zones (tall-grass prairie, eastern deciduous forest, floodplain woodland and lowland [floodplain] prairie), and a total of 599 species of vascular plants representing 324 genera in 95 families. Three hundred seventy-five species were not previously reported for the county. Although the study area includes an interesting topographic and perhaps physiographic boundary formed by the terminal moraine of the Kansan glaciation, no evidence supporting an analogous floristic boundary was found.

New And Corrected Floristic Records For Nebraska, Steven B. Rolfsmeier, Robert B. Kaul, Marjorie M. Garabrandt, David M. Sutherland

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

New distributional data are given for 54 species of vascular plants in Nebraska. Twenty are newly recorded for the State. 23 are shown to be more widespread than was previously known, seven are shown to have more restricted ranges than previously reported. the records of one species attributed to the State are shown to be based on misidentifications. and the presence in the State of three species collected long ago is confirmed by recent collections.

Seed-Germination Studies Of Psoralea Esculenta Pursh (Indian Turnip) And Psoralea Argophylla Pursh (Silver Scurfpea), Linda L. Spessard

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Seed germination of Psoralea esculenta Pursh and Psoralea argophylla Pursh was investigated using treatments involving scarification and gibberellic acid. The percentage of germination in the treatment using scarification was much higher than when using gibberellic acid.

The Giant Marmot Paenemarmota Sawrockensis (New Combination) In Hemphillian Deposits Of Northeastern Nebraska, M. R. Voorhies

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Lower dentitions essentially identical to the holotype of Marmota sawrockensis Hibbard, 1964, are described from the Santee and Devils Nest Airstrip local faunas (very late Hemphillian) in Knox County, Nebraska. These, along with newly-collected upper cheekteetb (previously unknown for tbis taxon), show that the species should be transferred to the genus Paenemarmota Hibbard and Schultz, 1948. P. sawrockensis appears to be structurally intermediate between ?Marmota nevadensis of the early Hemphillian and P. barbouri, a latest Hemphillian and Blancan species.

Systematics And Population Ecology Of Late Pleistocene Bighorn Sheep (Ovis Canadensis) Of Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming, Xiaoming Wang

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Large numbers of Late Pleistocene bighorn sheep (total counts of identifiable elements: 4,497) Ovis canadensis. are described from the Natural Trap Cave, northern Wyoming. The specimens consist of nearly-intact skulls and enough post-cranial materials to assemble several complete sheep skeletons. Most of the fossils yield radiocarbon dates from 12,000 to 21,000 BP, while the oldest are more than 110,000 years old as dated by the fission-track method on the volcanic ash. The specimens resemble modern bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) in having shallow lachrymal fossae and relatively wide rostra. in contrast to the Asian argali (Ovis ammon …

Historical Notes On Collections And Taxonomy Of Penstemon Haydenii S. Wats. (Blowout Penstemon), Nebraska's Only Endemic Plant Species, David M. Sutherland

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Penstemon haydenii was originally described in 1891 by Sereno Watson and was named for its first collector, the geologist and explorer Ferdinand V. Hayden, who probably collected it in the late summer of 1857 in the" Sand Hills of Loup Fork," Nebraska. The Hayden specimen which Watson saw in the Gray Herbarium at Harvard University had evidently been labeled with an incorrect location. Watson did not base his description on that early specimen but upon a more complete specimen, also in the Gray Herbarium, taken by Herbert J. Webber in Thomas County in 1891; so the Webber specimen, not the …

Habitat Utilization By An Introduced Fish, Gambusia Affinis, In Nebraska (Actinopterygii: Poeciliidae), John D. Lynch

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Mosquito-fish (Gambusia affinis) were introduced into Nebraska in 1972, and by 1987 had become well-established in two major rivers (Platte and Republican). In Nebraska, these fishes occupy lentic habitats (mostly sandpits and marshes into which they were usually introduced). but they also are abundant in lotic habitats (mostly in major rivers), where they primarily occur in shallow waters having low currents, habitats they invaded following escape from "cultivation." In these lotic microhabitats, they have the potential to achieve high population densities and to severely exploit such resources as become available

New Distributional Records Of Lizards In Wyoming, Randall Morrison, Lawrence Powell

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Based upon published evidence (Baxter and Stone, 1985), either lizard distributions in Wyoming are extremely patchy or they are not well known. It is apparent that many of the localities for different species are coincidental and clustered in particular areas of the state, suggesting that parts of the state are better collected than others. and that much is still to be learned about the distributions of Wyoming lizards. We report some observations of lizards in Wyoming, some with vouchers and some without, that are of some distributional significance. Five species or subspecies of lizards were observed at four localities.

Transactions Of The Nebraska Academy Of Sciences Volume Xvi (1988): Table Of Contents

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Nebraska Academy of Sciences, Officers, Policy committee ............. ii

Editorial Board ............. iv

Membership Objectives and Friends of the Academy ............. vi

Biological and Medical Sciences

The vascular flora of the Niobrara Valley Preserve and adjacent areas in Nebraska (Churchill, Freeman, and Kantak) ............. 1-15

Butterflies of the Niobrara Valley Preserve (Neil E. Dankert and Harold G. Nagel) ............. 17-30

An annotated list of the vascular plants of Fontenelle Forest and Neale Woods in eastern Nebraska (Marjorie Mueller Garabrandt) ............. 31-49

Interpreting modem and paleo-environments by analysis of water-stress in xylem: examples from Nebraska and Arkansas (James Landon) ............. 51-61 …

Butterflies Of The Niobrara Valley Preserve, Nebraska, Neil E. Dankert, Harold G. Nagel

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Seventy species of butterflies and skippers are reported from the Niobrara Valley Preserve. Twenty-four new county records are added to Brown County while 42 are added to the Keya Paha County checklist, bringing the total species/county to 63 and 67 respectively. Notes on numbers, flight periods, and habitat preferences are presented for each of the seventy species found on the Preserve. Twelve western and five eastern species reach their distributional limits in the Preserve area. Five hybrid butterflies involving three species of Basilarchia were captured on the Preserve.

Interpreting Modern And Paleo-Environments By Analysis Of Water-Stress In Xylem: Examples From Nebraska And Arkansas, James Landon

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

Wood-anatomical responses to an environmental gradient were studied in trees of northwestern and southeastern Nebraska and northwestern Arkansas to determine between- and within-site variation and differential sensitivity of diverse anatomical patterns. These data were then used as a tool to try to reconstruct paleo-environments, using wood-fossil assemblages from the Crookston Bridge Member of the Valentine Formation. No significant within-site variation was found in living trees, but great differences in environmental sensitivity were detected among the anatomical types. Responses displayed by the fossils do not match those of my modern study areas.