Faculty Works, Department of Geosciences

Drilling Predation on Serpulid Polychaetes (Ditrupa arietina) from the Pliocene of the Cope Basin, Murcia Region, Southeastern Spain

Martinell, Jordi; Kowalewski, Michal; Domenech, Rosa (PLOS, 2012-04-05)

We report quantitative analyses of drilling predation on the free-living, tube-dwelling serpulid polychaete Ditrupa arietina from the Cope Cabo marine succession (Pliocene, Spain). Tubes of D. arietina are abundant in the ...

Low Concentrations of Silver Nanoparticles in Biosolids Cause Adverse Ecosystem Responses under Realistic Field Scenario

Colman, Benjamin P.; Arnaout, Christina L.; Anciaux, Sarah; Gunsch, Claudia K.; Hochella, Michael F., Jr.; Kim, Bojeong; Lowry, Gregory V.; McGill, Bonnie M.; Reinsch, Brian C.; Richardson, Curtis J.; Unrine, Jason M.; Wright, Justin P.; Yin, Liyan; Bernhardt, Emily S. (PLOS, 2013-02-27)

A large fraction of engineered nanomaterials in consumer and commercial products will reach natural ecosystems. To date, research on the biological impacts of environmental nanomaterial exposures has largely focused on ...

Discovery and ramifications of incidental Magnéli phase generation and release from industrial coal-burning

Yang, Yi; Chen, Bo; Hower, James C.; Schindler, Michael; Winkler, Christopher; Brandt, Jessica E.; Di Giulio, Richard T.; Ge, Jianping; Liu, Min; Fu, Yuhao; Zhang, Lijun; Chen, Yu-ru; Priya, Shashank; Hochella, Michael F. (Nature Publishing Group, 2017-01-12)

Coal, as one of the most economic and abundant energy sources, remains the leading fuel for producing electricity worldwide. Yet, burning coal produces more global warming CO2 relative to all other fossil fuels, and it is ...

A modest 0.5-m rise in sea level will double the tsunami hazard in Macau

Li, Linlin; Switzer, Adam D.; Wang, Yu; Chan, Chung-Han; Qiu, Qiang; Weiss, Robert (AAAS, 2018-08-15)

Rising sea levels will have overwhelmingly negative impacts on coastal communities globally. With previous research focused on how sea-level rise (SLR) affects storm-induced flooding, we show that SLR will also increase ...

Late Ediacaran trackways produced by bilaterian animals with paired appendages

Chen, Zhe; Chen, Xiang; Zhou, Chuanming; Yuan, Xunlai; Xiao, Shuhai (AAAS, 2018-06-06)

Ediacaran trace fossils provide key paleontological evidence for the evolution of early animals and their behaviors. Thus far, however, this fossil record has been limited to simple surface trails and relatively shallow ...

A Geodetic Strain Rate Model for the East African Rift System

Stamps, D.S.; Saria, E.; Kreemer, C. (Nature, 2018-01-15)

Here we describe the new Sub-Saharan Africa Geodetic Strain Rate Model v.1.0 (SSA-GSRM v.1.0), which provides fundamental constraints on long-term tectonic deformation in the region and an improved seismic hazards assessment ...

Evaluating Geologic Sources of Arsenic in Well Water in Virginia (USA)

VanDerwerker, Tiffany; Zhang, Lin; Ling, Erin; Benham, Brian; Schreiber, Madeline (MDPI, 2018-04-18)

We investigated if geologic factors are linked to elevated arsenic (As) concentrations above 5 μg/L in well water in the state of Virginia, USA. Using geologic unit data mapped within GIS and two datasets of measured ...

A new rauisuchid (Archosauria, Pseudosuchia) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) of New Mexico increases the diversity and temporal range of the clade

Stocker, Michelle; Lessner, Emily J.; Smith, Nathan D.; Turner, Alan H.; Irmis, Randall B.; Nesbitt, Sterling J. (PeerJ, 2016-09-06)

Rauisuchids are large (2–6 m in length), carnivorous, and quadrupedal pseudosuchian archosaurs closely related to crocodylomorphs. Though geographically widespread, fossils of this clade are relatively rare in Late Triassic ...

The Tissint Martian meteorite as evidence for the largest impact excavation

Baziotis, Ioannis P.; Liu, Yang; DeCarli, Paul S.; Melosh, H. Jay; McSween, Harry Y.; Bodnar, Robert J.; Taylor, Lawrence A. (Nature, 2013-01-29)

High-pressure minerals in meteorites provide clues for the impact processes that excavated, launched and delivered these samples to Earth. Most Martian meteorites are suggested to have been excavated from 3 to 7 km diameter ...

A unifying model for Neoproterozoic–Palaeozoic exceptional fossil preservation through pyritization and carbonaceous compression

Schiffbauer, James D.; Xiao, Shuhai; Cai, Yaoping; Wallace, Adam F.; Hua, Hong; Hunter, Jerry; Xu, Huifang; Peng, Yongbo; Kaufman, Alan J. (Nature, 2014-12-17)

Soft-tissue fossils capture exquisite biological detail and provide our clearest views onto the rise of animals across the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. The processes contributing to fossilization of soft tissues, however, ...

Effect of water activity on rates of serpentinization of olivine

Lamadrid, Hector M.; Rimstidt, J. Donald; Schwarzenbach, Esther M.; Klein, Frieder; Ulrich, Sarah; Dolocan, Andrei; Bodnar, Robert J. (Nature, 2017-07-14)

The hydrothermal alteration of mantle rocks (referred to as serpentinization) occurs in submarine environments extending from mid-ocean ridges to subduction zones. Serpentinization affects the physical and chemical properties ...

A Short-Snouted, Middle Triassic Phytosaur and its Implications for the Morphological Evolution and Biogeography of Phytosauria

Stocker, Michelle; Zhao, Li-Jun; Nesbitt, Sterling J.; Wu, Xiao-Chun; Li, Chun (Nature, 2017-04-10)

Following the end-Permian extinction, terrestrial vertebrate diversity recovered by the Middle Triassic, and that diversity was now dominated by reptiles. However, those reptilian clades, including archosaurs and their ...

Record of massive upwellings from the Pacific large low shear velocity province

Madrigal, Pilar; Gazel, Esteban; Flores, Kennet E.; Bizimis, Michael; Jicha, Brian (Nature, 2016-11-08)

Large igneous provinces, as the surface expression of deep mantle processes, play a key role in the evolution of the planet. Here we analyse the geochemical record and timing of the Pacific Ocean Large Igneous Provinces ...

Chemical, experimental, and morphological evidence for diagenetically altered melanin in exceptionally preserved fossils

Colleary, Caitlin; Dolocan, Andrei; Gardner, James; Singh, Suresh; Wuttke, Michael; Rabenstein, Renate; Habersetzer, Jörg; Schaal, Stephan; Feseha, Mulugeta; Clemens, Matthew; Jacobs, Bonnie F.; Currano, Ellen D.; Jacobs, Louis L.; Sylvestersen, Rene Lyng; Gabbott, Sarah E.; Vinther, Jakob (NAS, 2015-10-13)

In living organisms, color patterns, behavior, and ecology are closely linked. Thus, detection of fossil pigments may permit inferences about important aspects of ancient animal ecology and evolution. Melanin-bearing ...