Paleontology Commons^™

Sediment Provenance Of Tsunami Deposits: Implications For Assessing The Relative Intensity Of Paleotsunamis From The Sendai Coastline Of Japan, Tiffany Otai

Master's Theses

The 2011 Tohoku tsunami impacted the northeastern coast of Japan and caused unexpected damages due to the underestimation of this type of hazard. Of particular importance is the fact that geologic evidence for a predecessor event, the Jogan tsunami (CE 869), could have forecasted the severity of the 2011 Tohoku event. While the timing of tsunamis is important for effective hazard mitigation, outside of the 2011 Tohoku event, the intensity of past tsunamis remains unclear. To understand paleotsunami intensity, it is important to document characteristics of modern analogues like the 2011 event. This study utilizes surface distributions of foraminifera from …

Molecular Tests Support The Viability Of Rare Earth Elements As Proxies For Fossil Biomolecule Preservation, Paul V. Ullmann, Kristyn K. Voegele, David E. Grandstaff, Richard D. Ash, Wenxia Zheng, Elena R. Schroeter, Mary H. Schweitzer, Kenneth J. Lacovara

School of Earth & Environment Departmental Research

The rare earth element (REE) composition of a fossil bone reflects its chemical alteration during diagenesis. Consequently, fossils presenting low REE concentrations and/or REE profiles indicative of simple diffusion, signifying minimal alteration, have been proposed as ideal candidates for paleomolecular investigation. We directly tested this prediction by conducting multiple biomolecular assays on a well-preserved fibula of the dinosaur Edmontosaurus from the Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation previously found to exhibit low REE concentrations and steeply-declining REE profiles. Gel electrophoresis identified the presence of organic material in this specimen, and subsequent immunofluorescence and enzyme-linked immunosorbant assays identified preservation of epitopes of the …

Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Paleontological Resources Management Plan (Public Version), Scott Kottkamp, Vincent L. Santucci, Justin S. Tweet, Jessica De Smet, Ellen Stark

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

Since Agate Springs Ranch was founded by James H. Cook in 1887, exquisite examples of transitional Miocene mammalian fauna have been found along this stretch of the Niobrara River valley. Collectively these paleontological discoveries, along with the existing archeological and historical Native American collection, were the basis for establishing Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) as a unit of the National Park System (NPS). The fossil remains from the Harrison and Anderson Ranch formations span a short, but important, time period within the Miocene Epoch. AGFO has provided science with an intimate look into North American mammalian evolution …

Assessment Of Switchgrass-Based Bioenergy Supply Using Gis-Based Fuzzy Logic And Network Optimization In Missouri (U.S.A.), Gia Nguyen, Erik Lyttek, Pankaj Lal, Taylor Wieczerak, Pralhad Burli

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Bioenergy has been globally recognized as one of the sustainable alternatives to fossil fuels. An assured supply of biomass feedstocks is a crucial bottleneck for the bioenergy industry emanating from uncertainties in land-use changes and future prices. Analytical approaches deriving from geographical information systems (GIS)-based analysis, mathematical modeling, optimization analyses, and empirical techniques have been widely used to evaluate the potential for bioenergy feedstock. In this study, we propose a three-phase methodology integrating fuzzy logic, network optimization, and ecosystem services assessment to estimate potential bioenergy supply. The fuzzy logic analysis uses multiple spatial criteria to identify suitable biomass cultivating regions. …

Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Of Quaternary Saltville, Virginia, Using Ostracode Autecology, Austin Gause

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Saltville valley in southwestern Virginia is home to Quaternary localities containing paleontological and archaeological remains. Historically the valley has been mined for salt and the small lakes, ponds and springs along the valley floor have a brackish signature. A preliminary report on the site’s ostracode fauna suggested that the site’s water was not always saline. This study analyzed modern and Quaternary ostracodes to understand the valley’s hydrologic and chemical evolution. Sediments contained primarily freshwater species, including the environmentally sensitive Candona crogmaniana. The presence of Pelocypris tuberculatum and a new Fabaeformiscandona species throughout a vertical section spanning the latest Pleistocene …

Early Paleogene Biosiliceous Sedimentation In The Atlantic Ocean: Testing The Inorganic Origin Hypothesis For Paleocene And Eocene Chert And Porcellanite, Jakub Witkowski, Donald E. Penman, Karolina Bryłka, Bridget S. Wade, Sabine Matting, David M. Harwood, Steven M. Bohaty

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The widespread occurrence of lower Eocene chert and porcellanite has been viewed as a major paleoceanographic issue since the advent of ocean drilling, and both biotic and abiotic forcings have been proposed to explain it. We present a reconstruction of indurated siliceous sediment (ISS) and preserved biosiliceous sediment (PBS) occurrences in the Atlantic Ocean through the Paleocene and Eocene (~66 through 34 Ma). ISS and PBS distributions reveal dissimilar temporal trends, with the peak of ISS occurrences coinciding with the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, in line with previous studies. PBS occurrences show a generally increasing trend culminating between 44 and …

Preservation Of Latest Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) - Paleocene Frogs (Eorubeta Nevadensis) Of The Sheep Pass Formation Of East-Central Nevada And Implications For Paleogeography Of The Nevadaplano, Joshua W. Bonde, Peter A. Druschke, Richard P. Hilton, Amy C. Henrici, Stephen M. Rowland

Geoscience Faculty Research

Here we report on exceptional preservation of remains of the frog Eorubeta nevadensis in deposits of the Sheep Pass Formation, ranging from Late Cretaceous to Eocene, in the south Egan Range, Nevada. This formation represents a lacustrine basin within the Sevier retroarc hinterland. The formation is subdivided into six members (A–F); of interest here are members B and C. The base of member B is ?uppermost Cretaceous-Paleocene, while member C is Paleocene. Member B frogs are preserved in three taphonomic modes. Mode 1 frogs are nearly complete and accumulated under attritional processes, with frogs settling on microbial mats, as evidenced …

Fayetteville And Imo Shales: Punctuated Upper Mississippian Shallowing Upward Sequence, Southern Ozark Region, Northern Arkansas, Joshua Stevens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The late Mississippian lithostratigraphic succession in the southern Ozark region, northern Arkansas, include, in ascending order, the Meramecan Moorefield Shale, Batesville Sandstone (with Hindsville Member); Chesterian Fayetteville Shale and Pitkin Limestone (with Imo Member). This interval is now interpreted as a single transgressive-regressive, unconformity-bounded, eustatic, third order cycle (Stevens and Manger, 2018). The Moorefield lowstand wedge is bound by a basal unconformity and succeeded by the transgressive Batesville Sandstone with its Hindsville Member. This succession reflects accretionary deposition along strike of the rising strand line, likely as a barrier island system, as its equivalents are shale (basinward) and limestone (laterally …

Crabs From The Cane River Formation Of Northern Louisiana: A Study Of Neozanthopsis Americana And Associated Fauna, Katie Mclain

Honors Theses

Neozanthopsis Americana is a crab from the middle Eocene Claiborne Group that lived along the Gulf of Mexico, and has been documented in Texas and Louisiana. This species was discovered by Rathburn (1928) and was later amended and added to by Schweitzer (2014). The specimens in this paper are found near Natchitoches, Louisiana, and along with their accompanying fossils are used to describe the depositional environment of the locality. Sediments were taken from the site and analyzed under a standard microscope for microfossils, which were collected and further analyzed under scanning electron microscope. In addition to the microfossils, the cuticles …

An Unusual Mastodon Revisited: Providing A Regional Focus For Mammut Americanum (Proboscidea, Mammutidae) In The Southeast, Matthew Inabinett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A century ago, two large American mastodon Mammut americanum specimens from coastal South Carolina were mounted for display at Amherst College. Their robust build, broad and pentalophodont third molars, and well-developed mandibular tusks were noted as unusual. Here, these specimens are redescribed; three additional mastodon mandibles from the same region of South Carolina are also described. Though collection information on these specimens is sparse, they appear to span >150 ka in the Middle to Late Pleistocene, and probably include the first report of Mammut from the earliest-Rancholabrean Ten Mile Hill Formation. Some “unusual” features — moderately to extremely broad third …

Ontogenetic And Adult Shape Variation In The Endocast Of Tapirus: Implications For T. Polkensis From The Gray Fossil Site, Thomas M. Gaetano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Endocranial morphology provides evidence of sensory ecology and sociality of extinct vertebrates. The Earliest Pliocene Gray Fossil Site (GFS) of NE Tennessee features a conspicuous dominance of skeletal elements belonging to the dwarf tapir, Tapirus polkensis. Numerous individuals in one fossil locality often suggests gregarious behavior, but sociality in T. polkensis contradicts behavior documented for extant Tapirus species. I test T. polkensis for variation in sensory and social ecology using computed tomography and 3D digital endocasts from an ontogenetic sequence. I compare the T. polkensis endocasts with extant Tapirus species using Encephalization Quotients (EQs) and 3D geometric morphometrics. Results …

Paleoecology Of Columbian And Pygmy Mammoths In Southern Nevada And California: How Terminal Pleistocene Ecosystems Shaped Mammoths At The Individual, Population, And Community Level, Lauren Elizabeth Parry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation research is to examine the paleoecology of the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) and the pygmy mammoth (M. exilis) on the individual, population, and community level, emphasizing factors internal to their ecosystem that may have contributed to their extinction. I focus specifically on mammoths from Southern Nevada and Southern California to add regional data to the complex and evolving study of North American mammoth paleoecology.

Chapter 2 documents the permitted excavation of a partial mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) between 2016-2018 from late Pleistocene groundwater-discharge deposits near Fairbanks Spring in the Amargosa Valley, Nevada. A preliminary radiocarbon date …

Encephalization In Commensal Raccoons: A Unique Test Of The Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis, Peter M. Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated selective pressures associated with encephalization in mammals and discussed broader implications. Relative brain size as measured by EQ (Encephalization Quotient) was compared between ecological categories. Omnivores had higher average EQ than ecological specialists. Since specialists are disproportionately affected by extinction events, selection for ecological generalism is proposed as encephalization mechanism. This mechanism may reinforce the more widely known Cognitive Buffer Hypothesis (CBH)—the idea that possessing relatively large brains has buffered lineages against environmental change. CBH is tested here by comparing EQs in Procyon lotor (raccoon) in urban and rural environments. CBH predicts that raccoons in the most …

A Southeastern North America River Community Forty-Thousand Years Ago, Zack J. Quirk, Dennis B. Blanton

Georgia Journal of Science

Understanding how past communities have been shaped by environmental alterations can provide insight into the impacts of future climate change. Local climate and river systems have changed significantly over the last glacial maximum, but little is known about the communities of the Georgian Coastal Plain earlier in the period. Plant fossils from Coffee Bluff, a Quaternary organic river deposit of the Ocmulgee River in southeastern Georgia, were used to determine past environmental and climatic conditions. The paleoflora were found imbedded in a mud matrix and were removed by a slaking method; they were later identified and separated to respective ecological …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2019, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The term “groundwater” has come to be all but synonymous with Nebraska. Nearly three-quarters of the total volume of the High Plains Aquifer lies beneath the State. Groundwater maintains our streams, our ecosystems, our people, and our vitally important agricultural economy. Nebraska’s total groundwater resource is vast, yet it is also vulnerable to natural and anthropogenic changes, necessitating a long-term commitment to wise management through informed decision making. Monitoring, studying, and reporting form the essential basis for such management and, ultimately, for meeting the myriad challenges presented by change.

The personnel of the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) are proud …

Vegetation Prior To And During Onset Of East Antarctic Glaciation: High Resolution Palynological Insights From Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica, Meghan L. Duffy

LSU Master's Theses

The Aurora Subglacial Basin (ASB) contains an estimated 3.5 m of global sea-level equivalent ice volume and is primarily drained by the Totten Glacier system, which terminates at the Sabrina Coast, East Antarctica. Thinning and retreating of the Totten Glacier indicate that this region is highly susceptible to oceanographic and atmospheric warming. The paleoclimate reconstruction of these changes, conducted in the context of this MS thesis, will improve understanding of East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) dynamics in this sensitive system. A recent study used seismic and sediment core data to document a dynamic early evolution of the EAIS in the …

Evolutionary Traits That Enable Scleractinian Corals To Survive Mass Extinction Events, Gal Dishon, Michal Grossowicz, Michael Krom, Gilad Guy, David F. Gruber, Dan Tchernov

Publications and Research

Scleractinian “stony” corals are major habitat engineers, whose skeletons form the framework for the highly diverse, yet increasingly threatened, coral reef ecosystem. Fossil coral skeletons also present a rich record that enables paleontological analysis of coral origins, tracing them back to the Triassic (~241 Myr). While numerous invertebrate lineages were eradicated at the last major mass extinction boundary, the Cretaceous-Tertiary/K-T (66 Myr), a number of Scleractinian corals survived. We review this history and assess traits correlated with K-T mass extinction survival. Disaster-related “survival” traits that emerged from our analysis are: (1) deep water residing (>100 m); (2) cosmopolitan distributions, …

A New Early Occurrence Of Cervidae In North America From The Miocene-Pliocene Ellensburg Formation In Washington, Usa, Meaghan M. Emery-Wetherell, Joseph F. Schilter

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

A new fossil cervid from the Craig’s Hill locality of the Miocene-Pliocene Ellensburg Formation in the State of Washington, USA, may be one of the oldest fossil deer yet found in North America, underlying a date of 4.9 Ma ± 0.1 Ma. This mandible fragment with m2, m3, and associated p2 has a size that does not distinguish it from Bretzia pseudalces, Odocoileus hemionus, or Capreolus constantini, and distinguishes it from Eocoileus gentryorum and Odocoileus lucasi only in having a thinner p2. A strong paraconid on the p2, and ectostylids and cingulids on the m2 and m3 link it most …

Late Cretaceous Stratigraphy And Paleoceanographic Evolution In The Great Australian Bight Basin Based On Results From Iodp Site U1512, K. G. Macleod, Lloyd T. White, Carmine C. Wainman, Mathieu Martinez, Matthew M. Jones, Sietske J. Batenburg, Laurent Riquier, Shannon J. Haynes, David K. Watkins, K. A. Bogus, H.-J. Brumsack, R. Do Monte Guerra, Kirsty M. Edgar, Trine Edvardsen, Dennis Harry, Takashi Hasegawa, R. W. Hobbs, Brian T. Huber, T. Jiang, J. Kuroda, E. Y. Lee, Yong-Xiang Li, Alessandro Maritatai, Lauren K. O'Connor, Maria Rose Petrizzo, Tracy M. Quan, C. Richter, Maria Luisa Garcia Tejada, G. Tagliaro, Erik Wolfgring, Zhaokai Xu

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Upper Cretaceous sedimentary sequence at International Ocean Discovery Program Site U1512 in the Ceduna Sub-basin of the Great Australian Bight represents a continuous, N 690 m thick interval of black silty clay and claystone spanning the lower Turonian through Lower Campanian (~10 million years). Sediments were deposited in an elongate, ~E-W oriented, ~2500 km long rift system that developed between Australia and Antarctica with an open-ocean connection to the west and a continental bridge to the east. Site U1512 cores provide a unique, continuous record of Late Cretaceous deposition in the Ceduna Sub-basin on the hanging wall of the …

Hydrogeologic Framework And Water Balance Investigation Of Land Near The Gothenburg Canal System, Douglas R. Hallum

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) requested that Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) develop a local hydrogeologic framework and conceptual water budget for a parcel of land near a segment of canal in the Gothenburg Canal System to determine likely sources of ponded surface water that are ephemerally present on the parcel. The study seeks to assess the parcel scale water budget and to better understand the parcel-scale hydrology and hydrogeology. The object of this project is to provide reliable information to NPPD and its customers along a small portion of the canal. Information from this report may influence, or …