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Segmented Inner Skull Cavities Of Eothoracosaurus Mississippiensis (Msu 3293), Amy Moe-Hoffman, Renee Clary

Research Data

Dunn-Seiler Museum specimen data:

• Catalog Number: DSM/MSU#3293 HOLOTYPE 
  
• Geographic Locality: Oktibbeha County, MS Rock Hill vicinity 
  
• Geologic Locality: Ripley Formation 
  
• Age: Cretaceous (Maastrichtian)   

Specimen includes Cranium, Mandible, loose teeth, and post-cranial elements.  

1. CT Scan description: The specimen MSU 3293 was scanned at the Mississippi State University College of Veterinary Medicine using a GE LightSpeed VCT (GE Healthcare, Chicago, Illinois, USA; www.gehealthcare.com ) on May 4th 2022, with scan energies of 120kV and 200mA. This produced 1593 images with a slice thickness of 625µm. 
2. 3D models: 3D models of segmented inner skull cavities based on segrmetation of the CT scanned …

A Histological Survey Of A Large, Sub-Adult Tylosaurus Nepaeolicus With Implications On The Validity Of Tylosaurus Kansasensis, Carson Cope

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

Tylosaurus nepaeolicus is a basal, medium-sized tylosaurine mosasaur that lived during the late Coniacian and early Santonian in the Western Interior Seaway. Despite being a well-studied species, there is debate over whether Tylosaurus kansasensis represents the juvenile form of T. nepaeolicus, or if the two species are distinct. Osteohistology can determine organism age at time of death and can be used to help resolve this debate and provide a better understanding of the growth of T. nepaeolicus. Thin-sections were taken from a humerus, rib, and vertebra of a single individual (FHSM VP-2209). All thin-sections show primarily parallel-fibered cortical …

Review Of The Ends Of The World: Volcanic Apocalypses, Lethal Oceans, And Our Quest To Understand Earth's Past Mass Extinctions, By Peter Brannen, Robert F. Diffendal Jr.

Robert F. Diffendal, Jr., Publications

In his new best-selling book, Peter Brannen, award-winning science writer, takes you on a fascinating trip through the run-up to the end of the Cretaceous extinction event and the K-Pg (Cretaceous/Paleogene) boundary, formerly called the K-T (Cretaceous/Tertiary) boundary.

Brannen interviewed many scientists who studied these events and went on field trips with them to major Cretaceous sites and to those where earlier and later extinction events happened. He presents clear explanations of what is known and not known about all of these events in a largely error-free book. Brannen details the other four big extinction events in geologic history: the …

Using Stable Isotope Geochemistry To Determine Changing Paleohydrology And Diagenetic Alteration In The Late Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation, Ut Usa, Daigo Yamamura

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Western Interior Basin of the North America preserves one of the best sedimentary and paleontological records of the Cretaceous in the world. The Upper Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation is a rapidly deposited fluvial sequence and preserves one of the most complete terrestrial fossil record of the North America. Such a unique deposit provides an opportunity to investigate the interaction between the physical environment and ecology. In an effort to decipher such interaction, stable isotope composition of cements in sedimentary rocks, concretions and vertebrate fossils were analyzed.

Despite the difference in facies and sedimentary architecture, the isotope composition does not change …

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.

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 …

New Insights Into Skeletal Morphology Of The Oldest Known Silicoflagellates : Variramus, Cornua And Gleserocha Gen. Nov. = Nouvelles Connaissances Sur La Morphologie Du Squelette Des Plus Anciennes Silicoflagellés Connus : Variramus, Cornua Et Gleserocha Gen. Nov., Kevin Mccartney, Jakub Witkowski, David M. Harwood

ANDRILL Research and Publications

Two of the oldest known silicoflagellate-bearing sediments, lower Albian at Ocean Drilling Program Site 693 in the Weddell Sea of Antarctica and Santonian in the Devon Island sequence of the Canadian Archipelago, are re-examined with a focus on silicoflagellate genera Variramus, Cornua, and Gleserocha that lack basal rings, a feature appearing during late Santonian/early Campanian time within the genus Corbisema. The extraordinary variability of Variramus aculeifera is studied, and a new genus Gleserocha is proposed for taxa with apical structures made of three struts, but without pikes. This new genus includes previously described Variramus wisei and Cornua …