Paleontology Commons^™

Distribution Of Diagenetic Alterations In Lower Cretaceous Strata Of The Tanzanian Coastal Sedimentary Basin, Justina James Saroni

Tanzania Journal of Science

The Lower Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Coastal Sedimentary Basin of Tanzania crop out in the Wami and Mandawa basins and are stratigraphically similar to the reservoir rocks hosting gas at Songo Songo. This study examines the relationship between facies and diagenetic processes in outcrops from the study area. Outcrop description and petrographic analysis by using optical and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) were used to identify facies and diagenetic alterations. Sixteen facies were identified, including siliciclastic facies: conglomerate (Gm), sandstones (St, Sp, Sm, Sh, Sr), siltstone and mudstone (Fm, Fl); and carbonate facies are packstone (Lsp, Lspc, Lspg, Lspo), grainstone …

Paleolimnology And Diatom Taxonomy From Lake Tanganyika, Sristika Adhikari

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lake Tanganyika is one of the world's largest freshwater ecosystems, supporting rich aquatic biodiversity and providing several ecosystem services to surrounding communities. Environmental changes such as rising lake surface temperatures, pollution, and land-use alterations threaten the lake’s sustainability. This research examines spatial and temporal variations in nutrient dynamics and primary productivity of Lake Tanganyika using diatom assemblages from multiple locations. Our findings indicate reduced nutrient levels and longer stratification periods in the lake’s central basin during most of the Common Era, as indicated by a remarkable increase in the relative abundance of long, needle-shaped planktonic Nitzschia species. In the southern …

A Large And Robust Legless Lizard (Squamata, Anguinae) From The Gray Fossil Site Of Eastern Tennessee, Justice D. Lamer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The early Pliocene Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee preserved an abundance of microfossils, including numerous anguid lizard specimens. This includes the following elements: dentaries, a pterygoid fragment, a jugal, frontals, parietal fragments, dorsal and caudal vertebrae, and many osteoderms. Because these specimens had not been placed taxonomically beyond the subfamily level, comparative anatomy of similar elements from extant anguids and some quantitative data were used to provide more refined identifications. Using these methods, it was determined that a new, robust type of Ophisaurus is represented at the Gray Fossil Site. Important novel features include relatively robust dentaries, fewer but broader …

Reconstruction Of Copepod Populations In Sierra Nevada Lakes Using The Diatom Fragilaria Cyclopum, Rorie Reisner

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Copepods are one of the most abundant types of zooplankton, and their populations are often a vital part of the food chain, but their past populations cannot be estimated from lake sediments because their exoskeleton usually does not fossilize. Gull Lake is a glacial lake located in the subalpine region of the Sierra Nevada, California, which stands out due to the presence of the diatom Fragilaria cyclopum, which is rarer in diatom assemblages. Fragilaria cyclopum exclusively grows on copepods in lakes. Diatoms have an opaline silica skeleton that often fossilizes in lake sediments, so we can use this relationship with …

Minerals Rock!: Improving Audience Engagement And Interest In Stem Through Enhancement Of The In-Person And Online Mineral Collection At Ursinus College, Juliette Lyons

Environment and Sustainability Summer Fellows

Museums are a vital source of educational resources for the general public. They provide information on a variety of topics and disciplines and encourage visitors to be excited about and engaged in learning something new. As we work to comprehend key topics such as climate change, it is especially important for the broader public to better understand science, including geology. While the geological collection at Ursinus, Pieces of Earth’s History, is not in a museum, implementing methods that museums use can improve the reception of the collection. Through the application of research gathered through articles, journals, books, and talking with …

Stratigraphic Distribution Of Pleistocene Aves At Fossil Lake In Lake County, Oregon, Cole Bradley Phillips

Masters Theses

The Fossil Lake locality in south-central Oregon is rich in many species of fossil remains and is also home to packages of sandstone that grade upward into finer siltstone or claystone. These packages have been interpreted to represent rising and falling lake levels as a result of glacial transgressive and regressive sequences. The fossil vertebrates and invertebrates have also fluctuated because of the different climates at Fossil Lake. Although the stratigraphic distribution of most classes of animals have been determined, fossil birds have not. Here, the distribution of 329 avian fossils is presented in the stratigraphic framework. The species were …

Updates To The Caniform Fauna (Carnivora, Caniformia) Of The John Day Formation, Oregon, Usa, John D. Orcutt, Kevin C. Talbott, Michael J. Monroe, Nicholas A. Famoso

Biology Faculty Scholarship

The John Day Formation of central Oregon preserves a diversity of Oligo-Miocene caniform carnivorans, many of which were first described from the formation. However, many historically important specimens lack detailed locality or stratigraphic information, complicating any analysis of faunal change through time. Here, we describe 16 new specimens of caniforms from the John Day Formation, most with precise stratigraphic information. We report multiple specimens of the amphicyonids Daphoenus Leidy, 1853, Paradaphoenus cuspigerus (Cope, 1878), and Temnocyon altigenis (Cope, 1878), all previously known from the formation. We also report the first definitive occurrence of the hesperocyonine canid Osbornodon Wang, 1994 from …

Shallow-Marine Crinoid Genera May Have Been More Resilient Across Permian Extinction Events In Terms Of Richness Than Deep-Marine Crinoid Genera, Amelia C. Kolstad

University Honors Theses

Throughout the Phanerozoic, one of the most successful phyla of marine invertebrates has been Echinodermata. Echinodermata was particularly successful throughout the Paleozoic, with class Crinoidea making up a majority of occurrences. The proportion of echinoderm occurrences that are crinoids declined massively at the end of the Permian and continued to decrease into modern day, never fully recovering. One of the factors thought to have been so important for crinoid success in the Paleozoic and their decreasing success throughout geologic time has been their propensity for success in shallow-marine environments, though crinoids also exist within deep-marine environments. This study seeks to …

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 …

Estimating Body Size And Biogeography In The Genus Alligator, Madelyn M. Turala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several studies have examined correlations between total body length (TL) and skeletal measurements in the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis), with some measurements serving as stronger predictors of TL than others. Femur length (FL) has been found to be tightly correlated with TL in A. mississippiensis, and this relationship has been used to estimate body size of extinct crocodilians. This thesis demonstrates that the humerus, radius, ulna, and tibia are also strongly correlated with TL and useful for body size estimation in A. mississippiensis, and thus, can be applied to related extinct crocodilians. Additionally, species distribution modeling …

On The Paleontology Of Belize, Alson Ovando

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Paleontology can be considered an underrepresented and emerging area of science in Belize. A primary aim of this thesis is to provide a background of paleontology in Belize and present the first comprehensive study of Quaternary vertebrate fossils known from the country. Quaternary fossil sites across Belize include caves, rivers, and sinkholes. In addition to reviewing and assessing material from known sites, this thesis presents new information and discoveries that were made while investigating Belize’s Quaternary fossil record. This thesis also includes a geospatial model depicting ecoregions in Belize during the last glacial maximum. Overall, the results presented here demonstrate …

Ontogeny And The Effects Of Perinatal Stress In The First Immature Skeleton Of Teleoceras Aepysoma (Perissodactyla, Rhinocerotidae), Joe Gajewski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Recovery of an immature fossil rhinoceros (Teleoceras aepysoma) skeleton (ETMNH 32999) from the Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee offers the first insights into the ontogeny of the species. ETMNH 32999 is interpreted to be a subadult male in an age class equivalent to ~17-20% of potential lifespan. Comparative analyses support the hypothesis that subadults of related taxa are typically ~91% of average adult size in most dimensions. However, certain cranial dimensions are substantially lower than expected in ETMNH 32999, averaging only ~74% of the average conspecific adult. Such departure from typical growth rates is suggested to be attributable …

Stylemys Nebrascensis Predation Hypothesis, Noah Lohrmeyer, Amanda Peng

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

In 2008 a fossilized tortoise shell was brought into the Sternberg Museum of Natural History. As we prepared the fossil, we observed markings that resembled predation. We are trying to find what species from the White River Formation could preyed on the tortoise. There are few publications on predation for this species. With few publications, we want to find what predator would hunt these species. We cross referenced the site of the tortoise and observed several carnivorous species. We used straight carapace length (Hermanson et al., 2024) and a regression formula (Wilson et al., 2016) to analyze the species we …

Mumm Vs. Minium: A Tale Of Two Quarries, Kale Link, Amanda Peng

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

In 2025, a discrepancy was discovered in the field numbers of a selection of mammal fossils, which had been mistakenly catalogued as originating from the Minium Quarry in Graham County, KS instead of the Mumm Quarry in Rawlins County, KS. While both quarries belong to the Ogallala Formation, they demonstrate differing biostratigraphic ages, faunal assemblages, and taphonomic settings. Mumm is Clarendonian aged, while Minium is Hemphillian. To correct this issue, all the Mumm specimens were assigned to an updated locality with more precise geographic and biostratigraphic data.

Mandibular Ecomorphology Of Tylosaurus (Reptilia: Mosasauridae), Andrew I. Price, Amanda Peng

SACAD: Scholarly Activities

The large mosasaur Tylosaurus is known to have been a predator of large marine animals. Performing beam theory analysis, a computational technique that uses linear dimensions of a structure to calculate its resistance to bending, on the mandibles of six Tylosaurus specimens from the Smoky Hill Chalk of Kansas indicates dorsoventral and mediolateral bending strength both increase posteriorly along the mandible. Comparisons with Varanus komodoensis indicate relatively greater mediolateral bending strength mid-dentary in Tylosaurus, suggesting that resisting torsional forces of struggling prey was more important at this landmark in Tylosaurus and that more of its jaw length was used …

Taphonomy And Fossil Record Of Eufistulana Mumia In The Owl Creek Formation Of The Mississippi Embayment, Riley Rilette

Honors Theses

This study examines the taphonomy and preservation of Eufistulana mumia, a boring bivalve, within the Owl Creek Formation of northeastern Mississippi. The formation was deposited in a shallow marine environment of Maastrichtian age within the Mississippi Embayment. A total of 66 specimens were collected from exposures within the formation and analyzed to evaluate morphometric variation and orientation patterns. Field measurements of trend and plunge of each specimen were recorded in situ using a geological compass, and specimens were later prepared and measured in the laboratory with digital calipers. Morphometric results show consistent tube morphology, with basal widths larger than distal …

Geochemistry Of Crusts In Palaeontological Deposits, Taphonomic Settings In An Upper Pleistocene Cave Site (San Teodoro, Sicily), Gerlando Vita, Luca Sineo, Francesco Armetta, Maria Luisa Saladino

International Journal of Speleology

The mineralogical and geochemical composition of cave sediments provides crucial insights into past climatic and biological dynamics. This study investigates the authigenic crusts of San Teodoro Cave (Sicily), a key Upper Pleistocene palaeontological site, through a multi-analytical approach.The cave hosts two superimposed phosphatic crusts, separated by sterile sediment, reflecting shifts in depositional and post-depositional conditions. Our analyses reveal a complex mineral assemblage consisting of calcite, aragonite, and various phosphate phases. Calcite is the dominant phase in the older crust, whereas the presence of aragonite in the younger brown crust likely indicates periods of increased aridity, potentially corresponding to conditions during …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2025, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Jeffrey Westrop

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Last Glacial Maximum And Late Glacial Aeolian Sand Activity, South-Central Indiana, Usa, H. M. Loope, J. L. Antinao, P.R. Hanson, P. M. Jacobs, D. A. Grimley

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Overview And Methods Of Molecular Paleontology: A Review, Shelby Touchstone

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Molecular paleontology—the study of ancient biomolecules preserved in fossils and sediments, including ancient DNA, lipids, and proteins—has motivated researchers since the 1950s, inspiring both scientific inquiry and broader cultural imagination. Think Jurassic Park. This honors thesis presents a comprehensive review of the history, current state, and methods of the field of molecular paleontology. Drawing on peer-reviewed literature and scholarly resources accessed through databases such as EBSCO and Bierce library, this review examines key techniques such as Next Generation Sequencing and amino acid racemization and will go over limitations and controversies in the field. It will also explore potential new …

Sedimentology, Paleontology, And Depositional Environments Of The Upper Devonian Lock Haven Formation In West Burlington Quarry, North-Central Pa, Michael Harman

Honors Theses

The Upper Devonian Lock Haven Formation in north-central Pennsylvania preserves evidence of significant climactic and evolutionary transitions, including the fin-to-limb transition and initial arborescence. The formation contains abundant sedimentary features, palynomorphs, trace fossils, and fish body fossils, making it crucial for reconstructing these paleoenvironments. However, integrated studies on the Lock Haven Formation are rare. This study characterizes the depositional environments, ichnology, paleontology, and age of the Lock Haven Formation. A recent exposure at the Insinger-Ward West Burlington Quarry reveals three middle to early late Famennian lithofacies associations (FAs). FA1 consists of red sandstone, shale, and mudstone containing rhizoliths (deeply penetrating …

Report 17—Revisions To The Articles Of Organization And Procedure Of The Commission On Stratigraphic Nomenclature Of The Americas, Lynn T. Dafoe, Robert B. Macnaughton, Marie-Perre Aubry, Carlton E. Brett, James R. Lehane, Fernando Núñez-Useche, Randall C. Orndorff, Frank Brunton, Lucy E. Edwards, Richard H. Fluegeman, Howard Harper, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Norman P. Lasca, B. H. Tew

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Several revisions to the Articles of Organization and Procedure for the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature have been adopted following the 75th, 79th, and 80th annual meetings of the Commission in 2020, 2024 and 2025, respectively. Of these, the most substantial change was revision of Article III regarding membership composition of the Commission and the addition of new member organizations from Central and South America and the Caribbean region. As a result, the Commission also voted to change its name to be more inclusive of the expanding membership, with approval of the name: Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the …

Plant Practices And Community At The Heart Of Hopewell: Paleoethnobotany At The Overly Site And Beyond, Abigail Deewaard

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Paleoethnobotanical analyses of Ohio Hopewell habitation sites in past decades have shed light on the subsistence practices, settlement patterns, and environmental management of Indigenous peoples engaged in what archaeologists describe as the Hopewell phenomenon. However, comparatively less attention has been paid to the social dimensions of plant use, particularly at habitation sites in the Scioto Hopewell region. Hopewell is an archaeological term that refers to the Middle Woodland (ca. 100 BCE–400 CE) network of interregional relationships across eastern North America characterized by long-distance exchange, monumental earthwork construction, and ceremonial practices including the honoring of ancestors. This thesis applies a social …

New Fossil Mygalomorph Spiders (?Idiopidae, Pycnothelidae) From The Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation Of Brazil, Elis Maria Gomes Santana

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The infraorder Mygalomorphae represents one of the earliest-diverging lineages of spiders, but its fossil record remains sparse relative to the modern diversity of the group. This is a reflection of both ecological and preservational biases, such as the predominantly fossorial habits of many mygalomorphs and the strong bias of the spider fossil record toward amber deposits. Compression fossils from rock deposits are therefore especially important for documenting the evolutionary history of the group. Here, two new mygalomorph fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Crato Formation, Araripe Basin (Brazil) are described. The first specimen is tentatively referred to ?Idiopidae based on male …

A New Parsimony-Based Method For Reconstructing Sequences Of Developmental Events And Estimating Rates Of Intraspecific Variation, With Applications To Trilobites, Alexander Benjamin Bradley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ontogenetic Sequence Analysis (OSA) is a method for reconstructing multiple sequences of abrupt phenotypic transformations (developmental events) for sampled populations of any kind of organism. It makes use of cladistic parsimony software to produce a network, or graph, whose vertices represent unique phenotypes at different stages of maturity (“semaphoronts”) and whose edges describe the developmental events occurring between semaphoronts. It is a powerful tool for constraining the range of developmental variation possible for a given species and generating sample statistics capable of identifying both the most common and the outlier ontogenetic sequences. However, OSA has seen little use since its …

The Nature And Origin Of The Strodes Creek Member Of The Lexington Limestone, Central Kentucky, Claire J. Mendenhall

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The Strodes Creek Member of the Lexington Limestone is a small, unusual member that is largely known for its beds of fragmented and overturned stromatoporoids. The Strodes Creek Member occurs as two distinct stratigraphic bodies, wholly encompassed by the Millersburg Member, which represents a shallow, open-marine, mixed-clastic-carbonate platform, characterized by thin-bedded to nodular, fossiliferous calcarenites and calcirudites interbedded with shale. In contrast to the Millersburg, the Strodes Creek exhibits a lithologic background of dark, organic-rich, calcareous shales with a westward-thickening section of very irregularly bedded, stromatoporoid-rich, fossiliferous calcisiltites (packstones and wackestones). The calcisiltites are commonly associated with hummocky crossbedding, pinch-and-swell …

A Cave In Miocene Conglomerate: The Törökpince-Abaliget Cave System, Hungary, Krisztina Sebe, Piroska Pazonyi, Márton Bauer, Bálint Szappanos, Márton Szabó, Zoltán Szentesi, Mihály Gasparik, Ákos Juhász, Luca Pandolfi, Máté Gregorits, József Haász, Ágnes Novothny, Zsófia Ruszkiczay-Rüdiger

International Journal of Speleology

Conglomerate caves are rare, and only a few have been described in the scientific literature. Here, we present a newly discovered and significant cave system in SW Hungary, comprising over 500 m of upper passages and a shorter, lower section of a through-cave developed in Lower–Middle Miocene conglomerates. The formation of these cave passages was controlled chiefly by bedding and fractures. Dissolution has produced typical karstification morphologies, whereas corrasion, granular disintegration, and rock collapse have also played a role in shaping the cave. The cave is dominated by vadose-zone morphologies, but sediment infills indicating upward water flow, along with ceiling …

What Does Graptolite Origination And Extinction Reveal About The Cause Of The Late Ordovician Mass Extinction?, Charles E. Mitchell, H. David Sheets, Michael J. Melchin, Chris Holmden

Computer and Data Science Faculty Publications

Assesses the macroevolutionary turnover of paleotropical planktic graptolites during the Late Ordovician Mass Extinction (LOME) via automated sequencing and capture-mark-recapture modeling. Graptolites exhibited a succession of turnover pulses (sensu Elizabeth Vrba) that were coincident with the main phases of the Hirnantian glaciation and during which the Diplograptina experienced declining metapopulation size, elevated extinction, zero species originations, and ultimately, complete extermination. Concurrently, the Neograptina (latest Katian temperate zone immigrants) exhibit pulses of both extinction and adaptive radiation. Thus, the LOME involved intense species selection and the wholesale alteration of the clade diversity structure of a major element of the zooplankton. The …

Global, Continental, And Local Scale Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Methods For Interpreting The History Of Miocene North America And The Great Plains, Willow Hue Nguy

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The Miocene of North America is characterized by dynamic changes in herbivore communities, habitat composition, and global climate. Long-term cooling and drying trends influenced large changes in floral and faunal communities. The Great Plains, North America shifted from closed-canopy biomes to open-canopy biomes with C3-grasses to biomes with C4-grasses. This shift affected the herbivore communities as browsing-adapted ungulates were replaced by grazing-adapted ungulates. Much focus has centered on the Great Plains, so it is not well understood how the changes in biomes compare to other regions of North America. The models used for vegetation density indicate open-canopy biomes since at …

The Depositional Environment Of The Triassic Cow Branch Formation, Dan River Basin Of Virginia And North Carolina Through Petrographic Study And Geochemical Analysis, And In Relation To Taphonomic Processes And Vertebrate Morphology, Gina M. Workman

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Upper Triassic Cow Branch Formation of the Dan River Basin, located in southern Virginia and northern North Carolina, has long captivated generations of geoscientists. Since the 1970s, researchers have sought to unravel the mystery surrounding the depositional environment of this ancient lake system. This world-class lagerstätte hosts a diverse assemblage of fossil fauna and flora, with a notable preservation bias toward fossil vertebrates, most prominently the archosauromorph, Tanytrachelos ahynis. The geology of the Cow Branch strata continues to evoke a persistent question: Are these sediments representative of a shallow or deep lake?

I undertook a petrographic and geochemical study …