Paleontology Commons^™

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2018, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Leslie M. Howard, Michele M. Waszgis, 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 pleased …

Informing Water Use Decision-Making For Waterfowl And Agricultural Production On A Ranch Along The North Platte River, Nebraska, Douglas R. Hallum P.G.

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

In 2014, operators of a ranch along the North Platte River approached Conservation and Survey Division seeking expertise to interpret data collected on their ranch. The interpretations inform ranch decisions to accomplish operators’ goals. This publication documents the work by: 1) characterizing the ranch, 2) summarizing data collected, 3) characterizing hydrogeology of the site and the adjacent reach, and 4) conceptualizing groundwater/surface water interaction.

The ranch is a recreation property and a migratory waterfowl refuge with a few general goals: 1) develop and maintain high-quality wet meadow habitat, 2) maximize the extent and duration of surface water on the property …

Defining The Morphological Quality Of Fossil Footprints. Problems And Principles Of Preservation In Tetrapod Ichnology With Examples From The Palaeozoic To The Present, Lorenzo Marchetti, Matteo Belvedere, Sebastian Voigt, Hendrik Klein, Diego Castanera, Ignacio Díaz-Martínez, Daniel Marty, Lida Xing, Silverio Feola, Ricardo N. Melchor, James O. Farlow

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The morphology of fossil footprints is the basis of vertebrate footprint ichnology. However, the processes acting during and after trace fossil registration which are responsible for the final morphology have never been precisely defined, resulting in a dearth of nomenclature. Therefore, we discuss the concepts of ichnotaphonomy, ichnostratinomy, taphonomy, biostratinomy, registration and diagenesis and describe the processes acting on footprint morphology. In order to evaluate the morphological quality of tetrapod footprints, we introduce the concept of morphological preservation, which is related to the morphological quality of footprints (M-preservation, acronym MP), and distinguish it from physical preservation (P-preservation, acronym PP), which …

Stable Isotopic Characterization Of A Coastal Floodplain Forest Community: A Case Study For Isotopic Reconstruction Of Mesozoic Vertebrate Assemblages, Thomas M. Cullen, Fred Longstaffe, Ulrich G. Wortmann, Mark B. Goodwin, Li Huang, David C. Evans

Earth Sciences Publications

Stable isotopes are powerful tools for elucidating ecological trends in extant vertebrate communities, though their application to Mesozoic ecosystems is complicated by a lack of extant isotope data from comparable environments/ecosystems (e.g. coastal floodplain forest environments, lacking significant C₄ plant components). We sampled 20 taxa across a broad phylogenetic, body size, and physiological scope from the Atchafalaya River Basin of Louisiana as an environmental analogue to the Late Cretaceous coastal floodplains of North America. Samples were analysed for stable carbon, oxygen and nitrogen isotope compositions from bioapatite and keratin tissues to test the degree of ecological resolution that can …

Crossed Tracks: Mesolimulus, Archaeopteryx, And The Nature Of Fossils, Leonard Finkelman

Faculty Publications

Organisms leave a variety of traces in the fossil record. Among these traces, vertebrate and invertebrate paleontologists conventionally recognize a distinction between the remains of an organism’s phenotype (body fossils) and the remains of an organism’s life activities (trace fossils). The same convention recognizes body fossils as biological structures and trace fossils as geological objects. This convention explains some curious practices in the classification, as with the distinction between taxa for trace fossils and for tracemakers. I consider the distinction between “parallel taxonomies,” or parataxonomies, which privileges some kinds of fossil taxa as “natural” and others as “artificial.” The motivations …

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 …

Maps Showing The Physical Hydrogeology And Changes In Saturated Thickness (Predevelopment To Spring 2016 And Spring 2011 To Spring 2016) In The Middle Republican Natural Resources District, Southwestern Nebraska., Jesse T. Korus Dr., Leslie M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

This report accompanies fourteen new maps summarizing the hydrogeology and changes in saturated thickness in the Middle Republican Natural Resources District (MRNRD). The purpose of these maps is to assist the MRNRD in their groundwater management programs and in planning and installing an observation well network. Maps include:

• base of the principal aquifer;

• water table surfaces for predevelopment, Spring 2011, and Spring 2016;

• saturated thicknesses for predevelopment, Spring 2011, and Spring 2016;

• changes in saturated thickness (both in absolute magnitude and in percent) from predevelopment to Spring 2016 and from Spring 2011 to Spring 2016;

• …

Biodiversity And Distribution Of Benthic Foraminifera In Harrington Sound, Bermuda: The Effects Of Physical And Geochemical Factors On Dominant Taxa, Nam Le

Honors Theses

Harrington Sound, Bermuda, is a nearly enclosed lagoon acting as a subtropical/tropical, carbonate-rich basin in which carbonate sediments, reef patches, and carbonate-producing organisms accumulate. Here, one of the most important calcareous groups is the Foraminifera. Analyses of common benthic orders, including miliolids (Quinqueloculina and Triloculina spp.) and rotaliids (Homotrema rubrum, Elphidium spp., and Ammonia beccarii), are essential in understanding past and present environmental conditions affecting the island's coastal environment. These taxa have been studied previously; however, factors explaining their individual patterns of abundance in the Sound are not well detailed. The goal of this study is …

Morphometric Analysis Of Subfossil Macronycteris Spp. (Chiroptera: Hipposideridae) From Madagascar, Jamie Lynn Alumbaugh

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Macronycteris bats are morphologically conservative between species but demonstrate intraspecific morphological variation between geographic locations and sexes. Two of the four living species of Macronycteris are found on Madagascar, where they are broadly distributed and demonstrate a trend in body size correlated with the latitudinal precipitation cline on the western side of the island. The presence of an extinct species, M. besaoaka, from Anhjohibe Cave in northern Madagascar suggests that Macronycteris was once more diverse, at least with respect to morphology. Since its description, taxonomic and phylogenetic revisions have reshaped our understanding of this genus. On Madagascar, these include the …

Geology Of Southeastern Nebraska, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Dana Divine, Leslie M. Howard, Kathleen Cameron, Michele M. Waszgis

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Did You Know: Devonian, Daniel Childress

A with Honors Projects

This student's A with Honors project is a study on the Devonian period, with a table categorizing 24 species from the period and a poster with 10 lesser known devonian facts.

Scanning Electron Microscope Study Of Microstructure And Regeneration Of Upper Pennsylvanian Cladid Crinoid Spines, Hannah Smith, James Thomka

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The crinoid skeleton is characterized by a complicated, highly porous microstructure known as stereom. Details of stereomic microstructural patterns are directly related to the distribution and composition of connective tissues, which are rarely preserved in fossils. However, certain portions of the crinoid skeleton have never been studied with respect to stereomic microstructure. In particular, spines are common features on the crowns of many Paleozoic crinoids but had not previously been studied in detail with respect to stereomic microstructure. This study focused on pirasocrinid cladid crinoids, a common group with numerous identifiable crown spines, including spines on the arms and anal …

Discerning The Diets Of Sweep-Feeding Eurypterids Through Analyses Of Mesh-Modified Appendage Armature, Emily Samantha Hughes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Eurypterids were a group of aquatic chelicerates that lived throughout most of the Paleozoic. While swimming eurypterids are generally considered to be active predators, the benthic stylonurine eurypterids appear to have had a mode of life similar to modern horseshoe crabs with the exception of two clades, the Stylonuroidea and the Mycteropoidea, both of which independently evolved modifications for sweep-feeding on their anterior appendages. Among extant suspension feeders, it has been shown that there is a linear correlation between the average spacing of feeding structures and prey sizes. This relationship was extrapolated to the sweep-feeding stylonuroid and mycteropoid eurypterids in …

Structural Style And Stratigraphic Architecture Of The Northeastern Brooks Range, Alaska, Benjamin G. Johnson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Arctic Alaska–Chukotka microplate is a large Mesozoic–Cenozoic composite terrane that resides at the northern limit of the North American Cordillera. Although its Mesozoic origins are assuredly linked to the opening of the Amerasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, its Paleozoic origins can be linked to at least three separate paleocontinents, including northern Laurentia, Baltica, and Siberia. Across the Arctic Alaska portion of the microplate, an internal, mid-Paleozoic suture zone presumably separates rocks of the North Slope subterrane (Laurentian affinity) from a collection of smaller subterranes in the southern Brooks Range and Seward Peninsula (Baltic affinity).

The mountains of the …

Exploring The Northwest Margin Of The High Plains Aquifer: Structure, Depositional History And Hydrogeology, Nebraska Geological Society Field Trip, Doug Hallum, Dennis O. Terry, Jr., Michael Leite, Jennifer Balmat

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The northwest portion of the High Plains Aquifer in Nebraska corresponds with the western Sandhills, Box Butte, Sioux and Dawes County tablelands, and the Nebraska Pine Ridge in northwest Nebraska. This field excursion will travel beyond the margins of the High Plains aquifer into the White River valley and onto the Oglala National Grasslands. These areas are not only rich in natural resources, but rich in history as well. While this excursion will explore earth history, depositional environments and a portion of the High Plains Aquifer, the authors encourage all attendees to take additional time to explore the cultural, military …

Utilizing Radiolarian Assemblages To Track Changes In The Agulhas Current Through The Mid-Pleistocene Transition: Iodp Site U1479, William Alberto Bugbee

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The objective of this study was to assess the radiolarian assemblage of the Agulhas Current at International Ocean Discovery Program Expedition 361, Site U1479 (the most westward site), through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT). Samples between 1,000 to 777ka were utilized to (1) characterize the radiolarian assemblage, (2) observe whether the radiolarian assemblage is sufficiently distinctive to help discern the occurrence of the MPT in the Southern Ocean, and (3) determine whether changes in the radiolarian assemblage reflect a change or changes in ocean currents that may have occurred during the MPT.

Over 300 radiolarian species from 15 different families were …

Death-Defying Morphologies: Mass Extinction And Disparity In The Order Harpetida, James Desmond Beech

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The trilobite order Harpetida has long been easily recognized but poorly understood. This study seeks to better understand the phylogenetic relationships within Harpetida, with a view towards using this group to explore the relationship between extinction intensity and disparity. The harpetid response to the Late Ordovician mass extinction is of particular interest. A discrete morphological character matrix was created from the formal descriptions of harpetids in the published trilobite literature, and refined using first-hand observations of harpetid fossils. The final matrix consists of 76 discrete characters, including 69 cephalic characters, three thoracic characters, and four pygidial characters. This matrix is …

Ephemeral Gully Erosion Modeling And Surveying With Close-Range Digital Photogrammetry, M. A. Islam, C. Weerasekara, Y. Zhou, A. Y. Shesukov

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

A Record Of The Precambrian-Cambrian Transition In Sw Montana: A Late Neoproterozoic To Early Cambrian Stratigraphic Window, Fortunian Biostratigraphic Assemblage And Treptichnus Pedum, R. Reid Trippe

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study documents a Late Neoproterozoic through Early Cambrian stratigraphic record in the Humbolt anticline of southwestern Montana. The Precambrian-Cambrian transition includes a Fortunian-aged biostratigraphic trace-fossil assemblage with the ichnofossil Treptichnus pedum. The Humbolt anticline represents an inverted paleo-graben that exposes a stratigraphic window interpreted to be a record of rifting along the Cordilleran miogeoclinal margin, linked with the breakup of the Rodinia supercontinent. The graben subsided and captured sediment during late-stage rifting and final-stage dissociation along the rift margin. Its structural axis paralleled the rift margin. Sevier/Laramide orogenic thrusting inverted the graben into the Humbolt anticline. The Late …

An Early Late Cretaceous Nodosaur From The Marine Eagle Ford Group Of North Central Texas, A Test Of The Endothermy In The Mosasaurs From The Late Cretaceous Of Angola, And The Ontogeny Of A New Pipid Frog From The Miocene Of Ethiopia, Matt Clemens

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

The first two chapters of this dissertation detail the study of the newly recovered Holland Farm nodosaur (SMU 77100) from the Eagle Ford Group (95.29 ± 0.04 MA) of Mansfield in north central Texas. The objectives of this research are (1) to describe the anatomy of the Holland Farm nodosaur, (2) to determine its phylogenetic position within Ankylosauria, (3) to elaborate the substantial differences in body size and osteoderm morphology in armored dinosaurs occurring in north central Texas during the short duration of the Late Albian and Early Cenomanian, and (4) to provide a radiometric date for the lowermost member …