Paleontology Commons^™

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Early Miocene Seed Like Plant Remain Fossils And Facies Associations From The Nallıhan District (Nw Turkey), Muhittin Görmüş, Yusuf Kağan Kadioğlu, Baki Erdoğan Varol, Muhammed Sami Us

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

Seed like fossils recognized by their distinctive orbicular in shape are seen in the early Miocene of the Nallıhan area (NW Türkiye). We examined more than one hundred specimens and facies associations for interpreting of fossil morphology and its paleoenvironment. The fossils as dark crystallized dots on the bedding surface of clayey limestones are characterized by a thick edged lenticular shape with a smooth one side and concave another side with circular nucleus. Their internal structures have circular a few whorlings, too often radial calcitic lamellae on the upper side and a few circular coiling at the bottom side. SEM, …

Drilling And Core Data From The Gulf Of Gemlik (Se Sea Of Marmara): Holocene Fauna And Flora Assemblages, Engin Meri̇ç, Zeki Yümün, Atike Nazi̇k, Enis Kemal Sagular, M.Baki Yokeş, Yeşim Büyükmeri̇ç, Ayşegül Yildiz, Gülin Yavuzlar

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

This study was conducted to determine fauna and flora assemblages of Holocene sequences from Gemlik Gulf (SE Marmara Sea) and to obtaine their similarities and differences between the assemblages of Gemlik and İzmit Bays. Total of 201 dark gray colored, fine to medium grained sandy clay samples were studied. In the drilled samples, 22 genera and 38 species were identified from the foraminifera characterizing the infralittoral zone. 40 genera and 58 species of foraminifera characterizing the upper circalittoral zone were identified. In addition, Black Sea originated Ammonia parasovica was found for the first time in cores taken from Gemlik Gulf. …

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 …

First Turolian Findings In The Neogene Sequence Of Denizli Basin (Sw Anatolia) And Its Regional Palaeobiogeographic Significance, Adil Doğan, Serdar Mayda, M.Cihat Alçi̇çek

Bulletin of the Mineral Research and Exploration

The large fossil vertebrates obtained from the alluvial flood-plain deposits of the Kolankaya formation are determined as Skoufotragus laticeps (Andree, 1926) and Hipparion brachypus (Hensel, 1862), as representative elements of palaeomammal faunas spanning from the eastern Mediterranean to Iranian domains during the late Miocene (early-middle Turolian, MN11-12). These first Turolian records from the basin fill succession bear importance on reconstruction for the palaeobiogeographic diversity of relevant taxons as well as admit of interbasinal stratigraphic correlation for the Western Anatolian terrestrial Neogene basins.

https://doi.org/10.19111/bulletinofmre.651620

The Mesozoic Vertebrate Paleontology Of Israel, Jonathan Maxwell

Scholars Symposium

The Mesozoic rock layers of Israel contain a number of interesting vertebrate fossils, most of which are late Cretaceous in age, though there are some occurrences of vertebrates from the Triassic as well. Unfortunately, the paleontology of Israel is not as well studied as other countries in the area. However, it has contributed some important information to our understanding of the area. The vertebrate fossils are of marine organisms found in a variety of limestones, mudstones and sandstones, indicating that the area was deposited underwater. This includes a large mosasaur, an elasmosaur, and a Triassic pelycosaur. These fossils combined with …

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

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 …

Lithological And Geochemical Responses To Abrupt Global And Regional Paleoenvironmental Changes During The Aptian In A Hemipelagic Setting Of The Eastern Iberian Peninsula: A Multi-Proxy Approach, Jander Socorro

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intense episodes of environmental perturbations and regionally to globally distributed, oxygen-deprived marine facies characterize the Cretaceous sedimentary record. The Organyà Basin in the Spanish Pyrenees chronicles this period in expanded stratigraphic sequences that enabled high-resolution sampling and detailed analysis of disturbances poorly recorded in more lithologically condensed sections. Here, I present an integrated multi-proxy study aimed at understanding the Basin’s response to changing paleoenvironmental conditions during the early Aptian stage of the Cretaceous.

Results from the El Pui section indicate that large-scale (> 1‰), negative carbon isotope excursions (CIEs) that show no corresponding shifts in local sources of organic matter …

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

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 …

Geochronology Of The Middle Eocene Purple Bench Locality (Devil’S Graveyard Formation), Trans-Pecos Texas, Usa, Amy L. Atwater, Kelly D. Thomson, E. Christopher Kirk, Meaghan Emery-Wetherell, Logan Wetherell, Daniel F. Stockli

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of the Sciences

Purple Bench is a middle Eocene fossil locality in the Devil’s Graveyard Formation of the Trans-Pecos region of West Texas. In addition to yielding a range of taxa characteristic of the Uintan North American Land Mammal Age, the Purple Bench locality is noteworthy in documenting a number of endemic species that are known only from the site. Despite the Uintan character of the mammalian fauna, the absolute age of Purple Bench is a matter of debate. This uncertainty stems from the wide interval of time encompassed by current radiometric dates bracketing the Purple Bench locality and from conflicting magnetostratigraphic correlations …

Mapping The Base Of The High Plains Aquifer Using Borehole Geophysical Logs And Airborne Electromagnetic Surveys In Western Nebraska, Steven S. Sibray, Douglas R. Hallum, Joseph Reedy, Jason Yuill, Thadeus Kuntz

Conservation and Survey Division

The project scanned and reviewed data from 15,421 oil and gas well geophysical logs in 13 counties to delineate the base of aquifer and thickness of the High Plains Aquifer (HPA). The data and interpretations from this study can be used in a regional groundwater modeling effort that includes the Western Water Use Management Modeling (WWUMM) and the and the Cooperative Hydrology Study (COHYST) model. The area studied is in the Upper Platte River Basin. The Nebraska Department of Natural Resources (NeDNR) has designated most of the area as either overappropriated or fully appropriated, where groundwater is managed jointly

by …

Cenozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy Of South Carolina, Usa, And Additions To The Fauna, L. Barry Albright Dr., Albert Sanders Dr., Robert Weems, David Cicimurri, James Knight

Showcase of Faculty Scholarly & Creative Activity

Although South Carolina has not typically been considered a state yielding a wealth of vertebrate paleontological resources, study of its fossils, particularly those from the famous “Ashley River phosphate beds” near Charleston, played a significant role in the early history of vertebrate paleontology as a scientific discipline in North America. Long overshadowed by the exceptionally rich Cenozoic record from Florida, renewed efforts in South Carolina over the last three decades have resulted in a wealth of new data from sites that rival, and in some cases surpass, any others along the US Atlantic Coastal Plain. With increasing study of these …

Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Carmel Formation of the Middle Jurassic has many mysteries. One of these enigmas is its bivalves. The formation contains the famous oyster balls called ostreoliths. Despite bivalves making up 80 percent of the fossils found in the Carmel Formation, it is not understood how the bivalves lived in this community. The formation is located in southwestern and central Utah. It was deposited when an epicontinental seaway covered most of Utah. The paleoclimate of Utah was hot and dry, which meant that the environment was evaporite heavy. This also meant that the seawater at the southernmost extent of the seaway …