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Skip to Search Results- 1Barr, Braden N.
- 1Bird, Heather M
- 1Buckley, Lisa G
- 1Croghan, Jasmine A.
- 1Dyer, Aaron David
- 1Fagua Gonzalez, Giovanny
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Cranial Morphology, Taxonomy, and Systematics of Pachycephalosaurids (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)
DownloadSpring 2022
Pachycephalosauridae (pachcycephalosaurids) were small to medium sized bipedal ornithischians, known solely from the Late Cretaceous of North America and Asia. These dinosaurs are characterised by thick, often domed frontals and parietals (frontoparietal dome), which are thought to have been used...
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Fall 2018
A full understanding of the evolution of novel forms requires inference about their origins through the study of variation in extant taxa and clues from the fossil record. However, the origins of morphological diversity in many groups are obscured by the scarcity of transitional fossils or...
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Fall 2017
Leafrollers moths are one of the most ecologically and economically important groups of herbivorous insects. These Lepidoptera are an ideal model for exploring the drivers that modulate the processes of diversification over time. This thesis analyzes the evolution of Choristoneura Lederer, a well...
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Osteology, Taxonomy, Phylogeny, and Body Shape Changes of Eocene Catostomid and Problematic Catostomid Fishes
DownloadFall 2016
Extant catostomid fishes occupy diverse aquatic ecosystems and niches in North America (NA). Less than 3% of catostomid taxonomic richness, or two species, are found outside of NA in Asia. Such adjunct and unbalanced distribution pattern has been established since the late Oligocene, when...
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Spring 2016
Mosasauridae is a lineage of extinct marine squamates that inhabited the world’s oceans during the Late Cretaceous (100-66 Ma). The name Mosasaurus was given to the first described specimen, which was a fossil discovered in Maastricht, the Netherlands, during the 1770s. Naturalists of the time...
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Bare-bones Paleontology: An Examination of the Systematic Methods Used in Vertebrate Paleontology and their Congruence with Avian Ichnotaxonomy
DownloadSpring 2016
Data used in the systematic paleontology of extinct vertebrates is limited to what can be collected from detailed comparisons of preserved anatomy. This restricts vertebrate paleontologists to those characters preserved on osteological specimens. Furthermore, parataxonomies such as ichnotaxonomy...
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Spring 2015
Pachyrhinosaurus is a peculiar ceratopsian known only from Upper Cretaceous strata of Alberta and the North Slope of Alaska. The genus consists of three described species Pachyrhinosaurus canadensis, Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, and Pachyrhinosaurus perotorum that are distinguishable by cranial...
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Fall 2015
Speciation can be an elaborate process. Delimiting species and reconstructing evolutionary relationships may be similarly complex, revealing gene tree discordance, cryptic species, geographic structuring or hybridization. In order to solve such systematic problems, a careful balance should be...
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Two New Species and a Revised Phylogeny of the Ellimmichthyiformes (Teleostei: Clupeomorpha)
DownloadFall 2015
The Ellimmichthyiformes is an extinct order of clupeomorph fishes. This group includes fossil species from marine, estuarine, and freshwater sediments ranging in time from the Early Cretaceous to the Eocene. In spite of the long history of taxonomic studies on the Clupeomorpha, phylogenetic...
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Fall 2014
With well over 3,400 described species, snakes undoubtedly represent one of the most successful groups of reptiles. Much has been written about their ecology, behavior, anatomy, relationships and evolution. However, despite the debate about the origin of this taxonomic group dating back to the...