Paleontology Commons^™

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 …

Dental Microwear And Diets Of Late Miocene Primates From Rudabánya, Hungary, Peter S. Ungar, Anna K. Wilcox, David R. Begun

School of Dentistry Faculty Publications

Objectives: This study focuses on a dental microwear texture analysis of European pliopithecids and dryopithecins from the Miocene primate site of Rudabánya, Hungary. The goal is to determine whether these taxa, found in part together in the same deposits, differed in their food preferences, or at least consumed, on a daily basis, in a manner that might have facilitated sympatry. Materials and Methods: Here we report on a molar surface texture analysis of all available fossil primates from Rudabánya that preserve antemortem microwear. This includes both Anapithecus hernyaki (n = 14) and Rudapithecus hungaricus (n = 5, including one from …

Nomina Ignota: Dinosaurios, Dinosauroides Y Otros Animales Del Pasado Que Nunca Existieron, Charlie Charmer, Iván Narváez

Alambique. Revista académica de ciencia ficción y fantasía / Jornal acadêmico de ficção científica e fantasía

Aunque desaparecieron hace 66 millones de años, los dinosaurios no avianos y otros grandes reptiles con los que convivieron son un reclamo habitual en las historias de ficción del cómic, cine, literatura u otros medios de expresión artística y/o entretenimiento. A menudo, sirven también de inspiración para introducir criaturas inexistentes cuya imagen y denominación parten de referentes conocidos. En el presente trabajo se analizan los diferentes métodos utilizados para bautizar a estas criaturas, así como las características y funciones que sus nombres pueden tener en los mundos de ficción, acuñando una nueva categoría para la nomenclatura científica, aplicable exclusivamente en …

Collaborative Research: Bocp-Implementation: Us-China: Multi-Scale, Multi- Proxy, Integrative Investigation Of Functional Biodiversity On A Changing Proterozoic Planet, Carol Dehler

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

A Multi-Isotope Investigation Of Mammoth Diet, Habitat, And Movement Patterns In The Central Great Plains, U.S.A., Jacob Mccloskey

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

During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Great Plains in Nebraska consisted of wooded parklands and grasslands, whereas spruce (Picea) forests, parklands, and steppe grasslands dominated east of the Missouri River. I analyzed bulk carbon (δ¹³C), oxygen (δ¹⁸O), and strontium (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) isotopes from tooth enamel in isolated mammoth (Mammuthus) molars to compare diet and movement patterns in two late Pleistocene assemblages: one in Nebraska (n = 24), and one in western Iowa and Missouri (n = 17). Furthermore, I identified a morphometric subset of molars as …

High-Resolution Event Stratigraphy Of Ostracods In The Ozan Formation Of Texas And Arkansas, Denali L. John

Master's Theses

This study focuses on the high-resolution event stratigraphic framework of the lower Campanian Ozan Formation in Northeast (NE) Texas and Southwest AR which is richly fossiliferous in ostracods. Little research has been published on the Ozan Formation and even less dealing with Ozan ostracods. Additionally, correlation of Upper Cretaceous units between Texas and AR is controversial due to the general lack of good exposures in both regions and extensive faulting in Northeast Texas despite similar depositional environment across the region. This study calibrates the ranges of ostracods and creates an event stratigraphic composite that is orders of magnitude higher in …

Groundwater In Nebraska, Troy E. Gilmore, Jesse T. Korus Dr.

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

What is groundwater? Groundwater is water that fills and moves between spaces in underground rocks, gravel, sand, or other materials.

Latah Formation: History And Case Studies, Kylee M. Woodworth

2025 Symposium

The Latah Formation is a series of discontinuous sedimentary interbeds between the flows of the Columbia River Flood Basalts outcropping across northern Idaho and eastern Washington. Ages ranging between the Middle to Upper Miocene, the sediments represent varied fluvio-lacustrine environments. The deposits are predominantly composed of claystones and shales as alternating, laminated couplets, many containing a variety of fossils. Though the sediments may appear similar across localities, they come from different source rocks, ranging from ashes from Yellowstone hotspot to metamorphic rock from nearby hills. These ancient lacustrine and fluvial environments allowed for great preservation of fossils, often in great …

The Demise Of Fossil Cycad National Monument As A Consequence Of Paleontological Resource Mismanagement, Nathaniel Valentine, Vincent Santucci, Justin Tweet, Aubrey Bond

Undergraduate Research Symposium Posters

Located in the Black Hills of South Dakota (Figure 1), Fossil Cycad National Monument boasted well-preserved specimens of cycadeoid fossils from the Cretaceous and concentrations of these fossil plants were greatest at the site’s location (Santucci and Hughes, 1998). I studied historical records to estimate the number of fossils removed by paleontologists at the site between 1890-1957.

A System And Method For Measuring Spatially Varying Surface Appearances With A Study Of Feathers, Jessica Baron-Lis

All Dissertations

Real-world materials, particularly biological structures such as feathers exhibit complex appearances that vary spatially across their surfaces. The field of computer graphics provides a means of understanding such surfaces through material modeling which uses both analytical models and data acquired from light-surface interactions. There are many efforts within the past decade in measuring materials for graphics, but common limitations in these works include not accounting for spatially varying properties and reliance on neural networks and synthetic datasets.

Feathers from modern birds present diverse appearances due to how light interacts with their unique hierarchical microstructures. Variations in those structures lead to …

Inferring Feeding Biology In Extinct Shrews (Soricidae: Mammalia): Application Of A Linear Morphometric Approach, Derek J. Den Ouden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Linear morphometrics have been used extensively to infer the ecology of fossil organisms, but shrews have not yet been thoroughly explored using this technique. Often considered to have a homogenous insectivorous diet, direct dietary observation suggests shrew dietary diversity is substantial. Diversity of this nature is well established to have influenced skull morphology in other mammal clades, so similar patterns are hypothesized to be detectable in shrews. To test this, I examined the link between known diet and morphological disparity in extant shrews using linear morphometrics and then utilized that framework to infer the dietary ecology of several fossil taxa. …