Paleontology Commons^™

The Cova Des Pas De Vallgornera (Llucmajor, Mallorca): A Singular Deposit Bearing An Exceptional Well Preserved Early Pleistocene Vertebrate Fauna, Pere Bover, Alex Valenzuela, Carmen Guerra, Juan Rofes, Josep A. Alcover, Joaquin Gines, Joan J. Fornos, Gloria Cuenca-Bescós, Antoni Merino

International Journal of Speleology

The Cova des Pas de Vallgornera is the longest cave of Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Western Mediterranean) and one of the 30 longest caves in the world. The exploration of one of the galleries allowed the discovery of a fossiliferous deposit of vertebrate remains in a remarkable preservation state. The fossil faunal complex found in this gallery is composed of up to 5 mammalian species (Myotragus aff. kopperi, Hypnomys onicensis, Nesiotites aff. ponsi, Rhinolophus aff. mehelyi and Pipistrellus sp.), at least 14 bird species (among them two Mallorcan endemic taxa: Pica mourerae and Athene vallgornerensis), one …

Body Size And Species Richness Changes In Glyptosaurinae (Squamata: Anguidae) Through Climatic Transitions Of The North American Cenozoic, Sara Elshafie

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

Poikilothermic vertebrates offer excellent climate proxies based on relationships between environment and measurable variables such as body size and species richness. Relationships of these variables in lizards to environmental transitions over long time scales are poorly understood. Here I show that patterns of body size and species richness in a lizard clade, Glyptosaurinae (Squamata: Anguidae), correspond to known histories of paleotemperatures through the Cenozoic of North America. Glyptosaurines have the richest fossil record among North American Cenozoic lizards and exhibit a wide range of skull sizes. In order to estimate body size for glyptosaurines and other fossil anguids, I collected …

Fossil Crocodilians From The High Guajira Peninsula Of Colombia, And The History Of Neogene Crocodilian Diversity In Tropical South America, Jorge W. Moreno-Bernal

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

The greatest diversity of Cenozoic crocodilians occurred during the Miocene in equatorial South America. However, the origin of this high diversity and its relationship to environmental factors are poorly understood. Most described species come from localities assigned to Laventan (13.8-11.8 Ma) and Huayquerian (9.0-6.8 Ma) South American land mammal ages (SALMAS), whereas the record is sparse in the early to middle Miocene and after the latest Miocene and Pliocene. Field research in the Castilletes (early Miocene-Pliocene) Formation in the High Guajira Peninsula of Colombia provides new fossil data on the origin of Neotropical crocodylian diversity. The Castilletes Formation crops out …

Palaeomagnetic And Synchrotron Analysis Of >1.95 Ma Fossil-Bearing Palaeokarst At Haasgat, South Africa, Andy I R Herries, Peter Kappen, Anthony D T Kegley, David Patterson, Daryl L. Howard, Martin D. De Jonge, Stephany Potze, Justin W. Adams

Peer Reviewed Articles

Palaeomagnetic analysis indicates that Haasgat, a fossil-bearing palaeocave in the Gauteng Province of South Africa, is dominated by reversed magnetic polarity in its oldest, deepest layers and normal polarity in the younger layers. The presence of in-situ Equus specimens suggests an age of less than ~2.3 Ma, while morphological analysis of faunal specimens from the ex-situ assemblage suggests an age greater than 1.8 Ma. Given this faunal age constraint, the older reversed polarity sections most likely date to the beginning of the Matuyama Chron (2.58–1.95 Ma), while the younger normal polarity deposits likely date to the very beginning of the …

Shape Evolution And Sexual Dimorphism In The Mandible Of The Dire Wolf, Canis Dirus, At Rancho La Brea, Alexandria L. Brannick

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Rancho La Brea tar pits are a classic fossil lagerstätten, famous for the deposition of episodic accumulations of large numbers of fossils over short intervals in the late Pleistocene. I analyzed 157 Canis dirus (dire wolf) hemi-mandibles from Rancho La Brea through a 2D landmark-based morphometric analysis to test for size and shape changes through time. I scored 16 landmarks on each mandible gathered from four pits of different ages: 61/67 (~13-14 thousand years ago [ka]), 13 (~17-18 ka), 2051 (~26 ka), and 91 (~28 ka). Analyses indicate size does change through time, and shares a broad correlation with …

A Jurassic (Bathonian-Callovian) Daghanirhynchia Brachiopod Fauna From Jordan, Howard R. Feldman, Mena Schemm-Gregory, Fayez Ahmad, Mark A. Wilson

Lander College for Women - The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School Publications and Research

A Jurassic (Bathonian-Callovian) brachiopod fauna from Jordan consists of seven rhynchonellid species all belonging to the genus Daghanirhynchia of which two are new: Daghanirhynchia rawyaensis and D. jordanica. Emended diagnoses are given for Daghanirhynchia daghaniensis and D. macfadyeni. Additional taxa described include Daghanirhynchia angulocostata, D. susanae and D. triangulata. Threedimensional reconstructions illustrate the internal morphology of the articulated shells for the first time in this genus. The material studied herein was collected from Wadi Zarqa in northwestern Jordan, almost due north of the Dead Sea, and to the east of the Rift Valley. Most species seem to be geographically restricted …

An Unusual Occurrence Of Arthrophycus Alleghaniensis(?) On The Shawangunk Ridge, Lower Mid-Hudson Valley, New York, Howard R. Feldman, Alexander Bartholomew, Beryl Kahn

Lander College for Women - The Anna Ruth and Mark Hasten School Publications and Research

The Shawangunk Formation is a medial Silurian conglomerate that crops out from near Rosendale, south through Wurtsboro, New York, High Point State Park and the Delaware Water Gap in New Jersey, and at Lehigh Gap, Pennsylvania after which it continues into Maryland and Virginia. The formation overall is interpreted to primarily represent a braided stream environment with flowage from mountains to the east that arose during the Taconic Orogeny into a basin toward the west. The trace fossil Arthrophycus was found in the upper-middle part of the formation on the Shawangunk Ridge at Mohonk, near New Paltz, New York. Arthrophycus …

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2014, A. R. Young, M. E. Burbach, L. M. Howard

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Depositional Environment Of The St. Mary River Formation In Western Montana, Stacia M. Martineau

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

In May 2013, the Two Medicine Dinosaur Center (TMDC) began excavation on a dinosaur bonebed in the St. Mary River Formation on Carey Butte, Montana. Since excavation started, four additional bonebeds have been discovered in the surrounding area. They display different depositional environments; two are in sandstone and the other three are in siltstone. The purpose of this study is to provide a depositional setting for the area that links all five sites together comprehensively by examining the sedimentology of the area. A stratigraphic analysis of the St. Mary River Formation of Carey Butte revealed four distinct facies associations. Facies …

Reconstruction Of The Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) Palaeotopography In The Upper Yangtze Region, Linna Zhang, Junxuan Fan, Qing Chen, Shuang-Ye Wu

Department of Earth, Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Reconstruction of the Hirnantian (Late Ordovician) palaeotopography in South China is important for understanding the distribution pattern of the Hirnantian marine depositional environment. In this study, we reconstructed the Hirnantian palaeotopography in the Upper Yangtze region based on the rankings of the palaeo-water depths, which were inferred according to the lithofacies and biofacies characteristics of the sections. Data from 374 Hirnantian sections were collected and standardized through the online Geobiodiversity Database. The Ordinary Kriging interpolation method in the ArcGIS software was applied to create the continuous surface of the palaeo-water depths, i.e. the Hirnantian palaeotopography. Meanwhile, the line transect analysis …

Architecture, Heterogeneity, And Origin Of Late Miocene Fluvial Deposits Hosting The Most Important Aquifer In The Great Plains, Usa, R. Matthew Joeckel, Steve R. Wooden Jr., Jesse T. Korus, Jon Garbisch

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Faculty Publications

The Ash Hollow Formation (AHF) of the Ogallala Group is an important sedimentary archive of the emergence of the Great Plains and it contains major groundwater resources. Stratal patterns of constituent alluvial lithofacies demonstrate that the AHF is much more heterogeneous than is commonly assumed. Very fine- to fine-grained sandstone dominate overall, chiefly lithofacies Sm (massive to locally stratified sandstone). Stacked, thin sheets of Sm with accretionary macroform surfaces are common, indicating that many sandstone architectural elements originated as compound-bar deposits in dominantly sand-bed streams. Channel forms are difficult to identify and steep cutbanks are absent. Multiple units of lithofacies …

Patterns Of Maximum Body Size Evolution In Cenozoic Land Mammals: Eco-Evolutionary Processes And Abiotic Forcing, Juha J. Saarinen, Alison G. Boyer, James H. Brown, Daniel P. Costa, S.K. Morgan Ernest, Alistair R. Evans, Mikael Fortelius, John L. Gittleman, Marcus J. Hamilton, Larisa E, Harding, Kari Lintulaakso, S. Kathleen Lyons, Jordan G. Okie, Richard M. Sibly, Patrick R. Stephens, Jessica Theodor, Mark D. Uhen, Felisa A. Smith

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

There is accumulating evidence that macroevolutionary patterns of mammal evolution during the Cenozoic follow similar trajectories on different continents. This would suggest that such patterns are strongly determined by global abiotic factors, such as climate, or by basic eco-evolutionary processes such as filling of niches by specialization. The similarity of pattern would be expected to extend to the history of individual clades. Here, we investigate the temporal distribution of maximum size observed within individual orders globally and on separate continents. While the maximum size of individual orders of large land mammals show differences and comprise several families, the times at …

The Groundwater Atlas Of Lancaster County, Dana Divine

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

The Femur Of Orrorin Tugenensis Exhibits Morphometric Affinities With Both Miocene Apes And Later Hominins, Sergio Almecija, Melissa Tallman, David M. Alba, Marta Pina, Salvador Moya-Sola, William L. Jungers

Peer Reviewed Articles

Orrorin tugenensis (Kenya, ca. 6 Ma) is one of the earliest putative hominins. Its proximal femur, BAR 1002′00, was originally described as being very human-like, although later multivariate analyses showed an australopith pattern. However, some of its traits (for example, laterally protruding greater trochanter, medially oriented lesser trochanter and presence of third trochanter) are also present in earlier Miocene apes. Here, we use geometric morphometrics to reassess the morphological affinities of BAR 1002′00 within a large sample of anthropoids (including fossil apes and hominins) and reconstruct hominoid proximal femur evolution using squared-change parsimony. Our results indicate that both hominin …

Marine Diatom Assemblage Variation Across Pleistocene Glacial–Interglacial Transitions And Neogene Diatom Biostratigraphy Of Site C9001, Nw Pacific Ocean, Marcella K. Purkey

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

In 2006, D/V-Chikyu cruise CK06-06 drilled Hole C9001C at Site C9001 in the Northwest Pacific Ocean, 80 km east of the Shimokita Peninsula, Japan. An existing chronostratigraphic framework provides a continuous glacial-interglacial (GI) climate record from which a diatom record of paleoenvironmental changes was developed across several GI cycles. Species counts, diatom temperature values, calculated sea-surface temperatures (SST) and factor analysis were produced for each sample and calibrated to prior diatom studies in this region. These features were used to characterize and compare interglacial maxima of Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) 1, 5e, 9 and 11 and transitions from the preceding …

Ichnology And Paleoecology Of The Jurassic Aztec Sandstone, Heather Marie Stoller

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In this study I describe and interpret tracks and trackways of the Jurassic Aztec Sandstone of southern Nevada and southern California. This study involved mapping of all known tracks and trackways, including foot length, stride length, and trackway width. Photogrammetric data, collected by Bureau of Land Management scientists, were utilized for several trackways in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.

More than three hundred tracks belonging to five ichnotaxa were documented within the Aztec Sandstone, including about 165 tridactylGrallator, 250 tetradactyl (four-toed)Brasilichniumtracks, and 7 arthropod trackways ofOctopodichnusandPaleohelcura. Four of the five ichnotaxa were not previously reported from the Aztec Sandstone. …

Postglacial Faunal Records From Cave Deposits In Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, Christopher N. Jass, Greg Horne, Dave Critchley

National Cave and Karst Management Symposium 2013

In 2009, we initiated an on-going, long term research project that focuses on exploration of fossil-bearing cave deposits in Jasper National Park. Specifically, we were interested in understanding patterns of mammalian re-colonization of mountainous regions following late Pleistocene deglaciation. Our work has focused on the identification of fossil-bearing cave deposits, excavation and sampling of those deposits, and radiocarbon dating of recovered remains. Examined sites have at least an age of 9600 years BP. Research at four cave sites, located in relatively close proximity to one another, is contributing to an improved understanding of the late Quaternary record of Jasper National …

Assessing The Reliability Of Stable Isotopes In Fossil Bone: A Unique Case Study Of Prehistoric Lung Pathology., Kathleen Bundy, Samuel D. Matson

Student Research Initiative

Mammals at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park (NE Nebraska) offer a unique opportunity to test for the preservation of primary isotopic signatures in fossilized materials. At this site, large herbivores such as rhinoceroses, horses and camels are buried in volcanic ash sourced from an eruption of the Bruneau-Jarbridge caldera (Idaho/Nevada) ca. 11.8 million years ago. Most fossils from Ashfall display pathologic bone symptomatic of a lung disease (hypertrophic osteopathy or HPOA) likely related to inhalation of volcanic ash. In this study, we compare the stable oxygen isotopic composition (δ¹⁸O) of pathologic bone with that of normal cortical …

Revised Vertebral Count In The "Longest-Necked Vertebrate" Elasmosaurus Platyurus Cope 1868, And Clarification Of The Cervical-Dorsal Transition In Plesiosauria, Sven Sachs, Benjamin P. Kear, Michael J. Everhart

Sternberg Museum of Natural History Faculty Publications

Elasmosaurid plesiosaurians are renowned for their immensely long necks, and indeed, possessed the highest number of cervical vertebrae for any known vertebrate. Historically, the largest count has been attributed to the iconic Elasmosaurus platyurus from the Late Cretaceous of Kansas, but estimates for the total neck series in this taxon have varied between published reports. Accurately determining the number of vertebral centra vis-à-vis the maximum length of the neck in plesiosaurians has significant implications for phylogenetic character designations, as well as the inconsistent terminology applied to some osteological structures. With these issues in mind, we reassessed the holotype of E. …

Lithic Analysis Of Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site Sediments, Kaitlin M. Hill, George V. Last

STAR Program Research Presentations

The landforms and geologic layers of Southeastern Washington record fascinating, unique geologic events, including repeated catastrophic flooding that occurred during the last Ice Age. These floods left behind many distinctive features, and a variety of fossils. After discovery of mammoth-sized bones in 1999, and confirmation that more bones were still in place in 2008, the Coyote Canyon Mammoth Site near Kennewick, Washington was secured for research, and formal excavation began in 2010.

Previous research suggests that the remains are buried in Ice Age flood deposits, which are overlain by eolian sediments, and those in turn overlain by slope wash. We …