Browsing FAS Theses and Dissertations by Keyword "Paleontology"
Now showing items 1-8 of 8
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Developmental and evolutionary origins of the crocodylian snout and amniote face
(2020-11-23)Crocodylians (alligators, crocodiles, and gharial) are instantly recognizable by their flattened skulls and tooth-filled jaws, adaptations which aid in capturing prey in shallow water and along riverbanks. A popular ... -
Dinosaurs: Assembling an Icon of Science
(2013-03-08)This dissertation examines how the modern dinosaur—fully mounted, freestanding assemblages of vertebrate fossils such as we are accustomed to seeing at the natural history museum—came into being during the late 19th and ... -
The evolution and development of the archosaurian head and the origin of the bird skull
(2014-06-06)Abstract: Archosauria, the "ruling reptiles," characterized along their stem by relatively large, macrocarnivorous animals, are today represented by two enormously successful but divergent extant clades: Aves, the birds, ... -
Evolution of Silica Biomineralizing Plankton
(2013-09-18)The post-Paleozoic history of the silica cycle involves just two groups of marine plankton, radiolarians and diatoms. I apply paleobiological methods to better understand the Cenozoic evolution of both groups. The Cenozoic ... -
Evolution of the Tetrapod Forelimb and Functional Morphology of the Humerus across Water-Land Transitions
(2020-11-23)In transitioning from water to land, tetrapods faced a plethora of changing environmental challenges, such as preventing desiccation, breathing in air, and locomoting on land. Throughout evolutionary history, the shift ... -
Reconstructing Oxygen Isotope Seasonality in Large Herbivores Through Mineralization Modeling, Experimentation and Optimization
(2017-01-20)The seasonality of climate shapes behavior, adaptation and evolution, and figures in environmental theories of human origins. Because blood and tooth oxygen isotope (δ18O) values reflect landscape hydrology, and because ... -
Shoulder to shoulder: Musculoskeletal function of the amniote pectoral girdle and the foundations of the mammalian forelimb
(2021-09-10)Before mammals could swing from the trees, return to the oceans, or take to the skies using modified forelimbs, they first had to get up off the ground. Mammals are the surviving branch of a group of vertebrates called ... -
Water and Phase Transitions in Rocky Planetary Interiors
(2023-05-12)This dissertation explores two fundamental aspects of rocky planetary interiors: water and phase transitions. The first two chapters investigate the deep water cycles in Earth and Mars. The research provides an estimate ...