Paleobiology Commons^™

Betting & Hierarchy In Paleontology, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

In his Rock, Bone, and Ruin: An Optimist’s Guide to the Historical Sciences, Adrian Currie argues that historical scientists should be optimistic about success in reconstructing the past on the basis of future research. This optimism follows in part from examples of success in paleontology. I argue that paleontologists’ success in these cases is underwritten by the hierarchical nature of biological information: extinct organisms have extant analogues at various levels of taxonomic, ecological, and physiological hierarchies, and paleontologists are adept at exploiting analogies within one informational hierarchy to infer information in another. On this account, fossils serve the role …

Microbiome And Metagenome Of An Anthropogenic Hyperalkaline Slag-Fill Waterway In South Chicago, Illinois, Usa, Jan Ingemar Ohlsson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The aquifers and waterways around the Lake Calumet area of south Chicago, IL, USA have been affected by a century of intensive industrial waste dumping. Steel slag in particular was used as infilling to claim most of the Calumet Wetlands for industrial and residential development. Since the prohibition and cessation of these disposal activities, a growing body of research has recorded the environmental and health effects of the infill, particularly where interactions between slag minerals and rainwater produces extremely alkaline groundwater (pH ≥13). Atmospheric carbon dioxide interacting with these calcium hydroxide-rich slag fluids produces massive precipitation of a loose, white …

Body Size Downgrading Of Mammals Over The Late Quaternary, Felisa A. Smith, Rosemary E. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jonathan L. Payne

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Since the late Pleistocene, large-bodied mammals have been extirpated from much of Earth. Although all habitable continents once harbored giant mammals, the few remaining species are largely confined to Africa. This decline is coincident with the global expansion of hominins over the late Quaternary. Here, we quantify mammalian extinction selectivity, continental body size distributions, and taxonomic diversity over five time periods spanning the past 125,000 years and stretching approximately 200 years into the future. We demonstrate that size-selective extinction was already under way in the oldest interval and occurred on all continents, within all trophic modes, and across all time …

Redescription And Phylogenetic Analysis Of The Materials Assigned To The Taxon "Captorhinikos" Chozaensis, Jason Paul Jung

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

“Captorhinikos” chozaensis is a multiple-tooth-rowed captorhinid reptile from the Lower Permian Clear Fork Group, undivided formation. Upon re-examination of the materials associated with the species from both the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, and the Smithsonian United States National Museum, I reaffirm their affinity and collective identity as a valid taxon. “Captorhinikos” chozaensis does not, however, belong with either of the two members of its genus, C. valensis or “C.” parvus, instead occupying its own branch on the phylogenetic tree of the Captorhinidae. This conclusion is based in strong results from a combined phylogenetic parsimony analysis combined with …

Two Post-Glacial Sagebrush Steppe Fire Records At The Wildland-Urban Interface, Eastern Cascades, Washington, Dusty Pilkington

All Master's Theses

Recent increases in large fires in the rapidly developing wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas of central Washington, where development intermixes with wildland fuels, contribute to federal firefighting costs exceeding of $1 billion annually. In addition, cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) invasion and anthropogenic-caused warming shorten fire return intervals while lengthening fire seasons. These climatic, ecological, economic, and social factors combine with fuel accumulation resulting from historic fire suppression to threaten lives and property in the WUI. To plan for safe growth in WUI areas, long-term fire histories are needed to expand understanding of past fire regimes in an understudied ecosystem, sagebrush …

Sustainability At Sit: A Look At The Past, A Plan For The Future, Taliesin Haugh

Capstone Collection

Climate change threatens our world and way of life. Intelligent development and investment could mitigate the worst threats of climate change, while simultaneously providing continuous growth for the global economy. The New Climate Economy proposes efforts to combat this ecological collapse that would result in $30 trillion in new annual economic growth by 2030. Stockholm Resilience Center agrees, giving a framework based on global ecological systems that calls for five critical tasks that can bring growth and stability: Renewable energy

Sustainable local food production

New development models, based on what has worked globally

Reduction of wealth inequity

Education, health, and …

A Redescription Of The Ichnospecies Koreanaornis Anhuiensis (Aves) From The Lower Cretaceous Qiuzhuang Formation At Mingguang City, Anhui Province, China, Li-Da Xing, Yuan-Chao Hu, Jian-Dong Huang, Qing He, Martin G. Lockley, Michael E. Burns, Jun Fang

Research, Publications & Creative Work

The Cretaceous bird trackway originally labeled Aquatilavipes anhuiensis, in 1994, had previously been examined, photographed and replicated, but never described or illustrated in detail. However, it has been part of a widening discussion about the distribution of Aquatilavipes and Koreanaornis in China (and Korea). Here we illustrate and formally describe the holotype in detail and assign it to Koreanaornis (Koreanaornis anhuiensis) as informally proposed by previous authors. We also demonstrate that most authenticated reports of Koreanaornis, including the Anhui occurrence, are from the Lower Cretaceous, not from the Upper Cretaceous as previously reported.

Behavioral Paleoecology Of Lower Cambrian Deposit Foragers: Reinterpreting Looping And Meandering Traces Using Optimal Foraging Theory And Quantitative Analysis, Zachary Andrew Jensen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The early Cambrian was a period of transition during which the seafloor environment was changing from a microbial-mat-dominated environment to a bioturbation-dominated environment. The result was a patchy landscape of variable food resources for foraging burrowers to exploit. Looping trace fossils, such Psammichnites gigas and Taphrhelminthopsis nelsoni, appear in strata worldwide during this transitional period, and the ecological niche they filled is a subject of debate among ichnologists. The objectives of this study are (1) to determine the foraging strategies preserved by looping traces through the application of optimal foraging theory and quantitative analysis, and (2) use those results to …

Belowground Rhizomes In Paleosols: The Hidden Half Of An Early Devonian Vascular Plant, Jinzhuang Xue, Zhenzhen Deng, Pu Huang, Kangjun Huang, Michael J. Benton, Ying Cui

Dartmouth Scholarship

The colonization of terrestrial environments by rooted vascular plants had far-reaching impacts on the Earth system. However, the belowground structures of early vascular plants are rarely documented, and thus the plant−soil interactions in early terrestrial ecosystems are poorly understood. Here we report the earliest rooted paleosols (fossil soils) in Asia from Early Devonian deposits of Yunnan, China. Plant traces are extensive within the soil and occur as complex network-like structures, which are interpreted as representing long-lived, belowground rhizomes of the basal lycopsid Drepanophycus. The rhizomes produced large clones and helped the plant survive frequent sediment burial in well-drained soils …

Shell Bluff – A Fossiliferous Ridge, The Site Of The Extinct Oyster Crassostrea Gigantissima And History Of Its Identification, Elliott O. Edwards Jr.

Georgia Journal of Science

Shell Bluff is described by geologists as stratigraphically one of the most important exposures in the Georgia Coastal Plain because the bluff is home to the large oyster, Crassostrea gigantissima, now extinct. Native Americans inhabited this area prior to Hernando DeSoto and his men who visited the area in 1540. They were probably the first Europeans to visit Shell Bluff. John and son William Bartram visited the bluff in 1764 and John described the bluff in his journal and the existence of large oysters. The British naturalist, John Finch, described a fossil oyster taken from the site in 1824 as …

The End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction And The Deccan Traps Eruptions, Rebecca Teed

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

This handout focuses on the evidence for the theory that a series of flood-basalt eruptions in northern India caused the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The dinosaurs and about 75% of all marine invertebrate species and many other organisms died abruptly at this time. This is one of a set of four articles on possible causes of the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions that can be used to organize classroom debates or to have students compare and contrast the events and their causes.

The End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction And The Chicxulub Impact, Rebecca Teed

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

This handout focuses on the evidence for the theory that a massive meteor impact off the coast of Mexico caused the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The dinosaurs and about 75% of all marine invertebrate species and many other organisms died abruptly at this time. It is part of a set of four articles on possible causes of the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions that can be used to organize classroom debates or to have students compare and contrast the events and their causes.

The End-Permian Mass Extinction And A Possible Massive Impact, Rebecca Teed

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

This handout examines the evidence for the theory that a massive meteor impact caused the mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period. This is the worst mass extinction known to geologists, and 90% or more of all species on Earth were wiped out. It is part of a set of four articles on possible causes of the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions that can be used to organize classroom debates or to have students compare and contrast the events and their causes.

The End-Permian Mass Extinction And The Siberian Traps Eruptions, Rebecca Teed

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

This handout focuses on the evidence for the theory that a series of flood-basalt eruptions in Siberia caused the mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period. This is the worst mass extinction known to geologists, and 90% or more of all species on Earth were wiped out. It is part of a set of four articles on possible causes of the Permian and Cretaceous mass extinctions that can be used to organize classroom debates or to have students compare and contrast the events and their causes.

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 …

Unraveling The Consequences Of The Terminal Pleistocene Megafauna Extinction On Mammal Community Assembly, Felisa A. Smith, Catalina P. Tomé, Emma A. Elliott Smith, S. Kathleen Lyons, Seth D. Newsome, Thomas W. Stafford

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Recent studies connecting the decline of large predators and consumers with the disintegration of ecosystems often overlook that this natural experiment already occurred. As recently as 14 ka, tens of millions of large-bodied mammals were widespread across the American continents. Within 1000 yr of the arrival of humans, ∼80% were extinct including all > 600 kg. While the cause of the late Pleistocene (LP) extinction remains contentious, largely overlooked are the ecological consequences of the loss of millions of large-bodied animals. Here, we examine the influence of the LP extinction on a local mammal community. Our study site is Hall’s Cave …

Ecology And Morphology Of The Late Miocene Musk Deer, Longirostromeryx Wellsi (Artiodactyla: Moschidae: Blastomerycinae), Katheryn Y. C. Chen

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

Longirostromeryx wellsi, one of the latest surviving members of the extinct clade Blastomerycinae (Artiodactyla: Moschidae), possesses highly derived craniodental morphology that deviates from typical musk deer form. Previous work suggests that the unique anatomy of L. wellsi represents adaptations for occupying open savannas. To test this hypothesis I conduct principal components analysis on five postcranial bones of L. wellsi, comparing them to that of several extant ruminant artiodactyls, which are divided among seven habitat categories. These elements are also compared with the postcrania of other blastomerycines. These analyses indicate that L. wellsi anatomy is most similar to that of other …

Stable Isotope Analysis Of Bison Latifrons And Paleoecological Inferences, Fabian Ceron Hardy

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bison latifrons was a large Pleistocene herbivore that is traditionally hypothesized to have been adapted to living in forest openings and woodlands. According to this view, the species was primarily a browser of high-growing, woody plants. Very little isotopic work has been conducted on this species, and there have been no prior studies of high altitude localities containing this species. This study aims to address both of these issues.

B. latifrons is known from sites in several states, including California, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, and Florida, among others. These sites provide diverse examples of this species’ habitat and the opportunity to …

Aptian To Santonian Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy And Paleoenvironmental Change In The Sverdrup Basin As Revealed At Glacier Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Claudia J. Schröder-Adams, Jens O. Herrle, Ashton F. Embry, James W. Haggart, Jennifer M. Galloway, Adam T. Pugh, David M. Harwood

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Exceptional exposures of a High Arctic Cretaceous sedimentary record were studied at Glacier Fiord, Axel Heiberg Island. The succession reveals a complex Aptian to Santonian paleoenvironmental history of the Sverdrup Basin that documents several global events. Foraminiferal faunas in combination with rare macrofossil occurrences permit the distinction of nine zones that facilitate biostratigraphic correlations to other High Arctic locales, the Beaufort Mackenzie Basin and the Western Interior Sea. The depositional environment as exposed in the Christopher, Hassel, Bastion Ridge and Kanguk formations changed frequently from a shelf to a shoreface setting. Most sequence boundaries appear to be conformable where shoaling …

Discovery Of A 240 Million Year Old Nematode Parasite Egg In A Cynodont Coprolite Sheds Light On The Early Origin Of Pinworms In Vertebrates, Jean-Pierre Hugot, Scott Gardner, Victor Borba, Priscilla Araujo, Daniela Leles, Átila Da-Rosa, Juliana Dutra, Luis Fernando Ferreira, Adauto Araújo

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Faculty Publications

Background: We report the discovery of a nematode parasite egg (Nemata: Oxyurida) from a coprolite closely associated with the remains of several species of Cynodontia, dated to 240 million years old. This finding is particularly significant because this is the oldest record of an oxyurid nematode yet discovered, and because the cynodonts are considered a stem-group of the mammals.

Methods: We extracted material from a fully mineralized coprolite by both scraping the surface, and removing fragments from its interior with clean dental instruments used a single time. A single drop of glycerol from a new vial was added as a …

Ice Caves On Extraterrestrial Bodies: What Are The Prospects For Speleogenesis And Detection?, Penelope J. Boston

The International Workshop on Ice Caves

Potential mechanisms for creating cavities in icy extraterrestrial bodies have been tentatively explored by several authors. On one hand we have examples of mechanisms that create caves in water ice here on Earth. In addition, there may be unique mechanisms on other Solar System objects that do not occur on Earth but might produce cavities, e.g. sublimation of comets upon perihelion passage. The methods of detecting such cavities depend upon the nature of the icy body in question, the potential for orbital or landed missions to visit those bodies in the future, and remote or landed methods for detecting the …

The Evolution Of Respiratory O2/No Reductases: An Out-Of-The-Phylogenetic-Box Perspective, Anne-Lise Ducluzeau, Barbara Schoepp-Cothenet, Robert Van Lis, Frauke Baymann, Michael J. Russell, Wilfgang Nitschke

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Complex life on our planet crucially depends on strong redox disequilibria afforded by the almost ubiquitous presence of highly oxidizing molecular oxygen. However, the history of O₂-levels in the atmosphere is complex and prior to the Great Oxidation Event some 2.3 billion years ago, the amount of O₂ in the biosphere is considered to have been extremely low as compared with present-day values. Therefore the evolutionary histories of life and of O₂-levels are likely intricately intertwined. The obvious biological proxy for inferring the impact of changing O₂-levels on life is the evolutionary history …

Influence Of Introgression And Geological Processes On Phylogenetic Relationships Of Western North American Mountain Suckers (Pantosteus, Catostomidae), Peter J. Unmack, Thomas E. Dowling, Nina J. Laitinen, Carol L. Secor, Richard L. Mayden, Dennis K. Shiozawa, Gerald R. Smith

Biological Sciences Faculty Research Publications

Intense geological activity caused major topographic changes in Western North America over the past 15 million years. Major rivers here are composites of different ancient rivers, resulting in isolation and mixing episodes between river basins over time. This history influenced the diversification of most of the aquatic fauna. The genus Pantosteus is one of several clades centered in this tectonically active region. The eight recognized Pantosteus species are widespread and common across southwestern Canada, western USA and into northern Mexico. They are typically found in medium gradient, middle-elevation reaches of rivers over rocky substrates. This study (1) compares molecular data …

Rapid Fluctuations In Mid-Latitude Siliceous Plankton Production During The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (Odp Site 1051, Western North Atlantic), Jakub Witkowski, Steven M. Bohaty, Kirsty M. Edgar, David M. Harwood

ANDRILL Research and Publications

The Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO; ~ 40 million years ago [Ma]) is one of the most prominent transient global warming events in the Paleogene. Although the event is well documented in geochemical and isotopic proxy records at many locations, the marine biotic response to the MECO remains poorly constrained. We present new high-resolution, quantitative records of siliceous microplankton assemblages from the MECO interval of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1051 in the subtropical western North Atlantic Ocean, which are interpreted in the context of published foraminiferal and bulk carbonate stable isotope (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) records. …

Evolution Of The Freshwater Sardinella, Sardinella Tawilis (Clupeiformes: Clupeidae), In Taal Lake, Philippines And Identification Of Iits Marine Sister-Species, Sardinella Hualiensis, Demian Willette, Kent E. Carpenter, Mudjekeewis Santos

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

We identify the sister species of the world's only freshwater sardinella, Sardinella tawilis (Herre, 1927) of Taal Lake, Philippines as the morphologically-similar marine Taiwanese sardinella Sardinella hualiensis (Chu and Tsai, 1958). Evidence of incomplete lineage sorting and a species tree derived from three mitochondrial genes and one nuclear gene indicate that S. tawilis diverged from S. hualiensis in the late Pleistocene. Neutrality tests, mismatch distribution analysis, sequence diversity indices, and species tree analysis indicate populations of both species have long been stable and that the divergence between these two lineages occurred prior to the putative 18th century formation of Taal …

Patterns Of Maximum Body Size Evolution In Cenozoic Land Mammals: Eco-Evolutionary Processes And Abiotic Forcing, Juha J. Saarinen, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Daniel P. Costa, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Alistair R. Evans, Mikael Fortelius, John L. Gittleman, Marcus J. Hamilton, Larisa E, Harding, Kari Lintulaakso, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jordan G. Okie, Richard M. Sibly, Patrick R. Stephens, Jessica Theodor, Mark D. Uhen, Felisa A. Smith

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is accumulating evidence that macroevolutionary patterns of mammal evolution during the Cenozoic follow similar trajectories on different continents. This would suggest that such patterns are strongly determined by global abiotic factors, such as climate, or by basic eco-evolutionary processes such as filling of niches by specialization. The similarity of pattern would be expected to extend to the history of individual clades. Here, we investigate the temporal distribution of maximum size observed within individual orders globally and on separate continents. While the maximum size of individual orders of large land mammals show differences and comprise several families, the times at …

Ichnology And Paleoecology Of The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, Heather Marie Stoller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study I describe and interpret tracks and trackways of the Jurassic Aztec Sandstone of southern Nevada and southern California. This study involved mapping of all known tracks and trackways, including foot length, stride length, and trackway width. Photogrammetric data, collected by Bureau of Land Management scientists, were utilized for several trackways in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

More than three hundred tracks belonging to five ichnotaxa were documented within the Aztec Sandstone, including about 165 tridactylGrallator, 250 tetradactyl (four-toed)Brasilichniumtracks, and 7 arthropod trackways ofOctopodichnusandPaleohelcura. Four of the five ichnotaxa were not previously reported from the Aztec Sandstone. …

Paleoecology Of Late Pleistocene Megaherbivores: Stable Isotope Reconstruction Of Environment, Climate, And Response, Aubrey Mae Bonde

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Late Pleistocene megaherbivore communities of the Pacific and Mountain West states of California and Nevada are under-analyzed in regard to ecological function (diet, mobility, niche partitioning, and range of ecological tolerance). Stable isotope analysis is a powerful tool that is known to recover primary paleodiet and paleoenvironmental information from biogenic materials, such as enamel and dentin. This dissertation explores the use of carbon and oxygen stable isotopes in Late Pleistocene (40-10 Ka) megaherbivore teeth to gain a better understanding of inter- and intra-specific behavior and reconstruct Late Pleistocene ecosystems of California and Nevada. Radiocarbon dates exist for most of the …

A History Of Place: Using Phytolith Analysis To Discern Holocene Vegetation Change On Sanak Island, Western Gulf Of Alaska, Cricket C. Wilbur

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study investigated a terrestrial climate proxy, phytoliths, as a complimentary approach to documenting the dynamics of present and past vegetation on Sanak Island, the largest island in a small island group in the eastern Aleutian archipelago, and as a new basis by which to interpret Holocene environmental variability in Alaska. A phytolith reference collection was established from 59 selected plant species of maritime tundra belonging to 27 families. The grass species and a sedge species produced abundant phytolith forms whereas the majority of dicotyledons in this study were trace producers of phytoliths. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction from fossil phytoliths recovered …

Terrestrial Vertebrate Families On Noah's Ark, Seth J. Beech

Senior Honors Theses

One of the central challenges faced by young-Earth creation researchers who believe the Bible to be the inerrant Word of God is defending the Biblical claim that two of every kind of nephesh animal was saved from the great flood on Noah’s ark. Recently, Answers in Genesis became involved in the design and construction of a full-sized, authentic replica of Noah’s ark. They have endeavored to be as accurate as possible in presenting the number of kinds that would have needed to be on the ark in order to have the diversity in species that we observe today. In order …