Paleontological Society Research Articles

Presentation of the 2018 Paleontological Society Medal to Anna K. Behrensmeyer

Presentation of the 2018 Paleontological Society Medal to Anna K. Behrensmeyer

Ontogeny of Southern Cassowary, Maleo, and Helmeted Guinea Fowl Casques: Implications for the Study of Bony Patterning in Non‐avian Dinosaur Cranial Ornaments

Cranial ornamentations (e.g. horns, domes, ridges, rugosities, crests, casques)—some intricately comprised of numerous bony elements—are common among living and extinct archosaurs. Yet, the developmental processes and selective regimes that bring about these metabolically expensive and seemingly bizarre structures remains a mystery. Such features have independently evolved at least 11 times among birds and are varied in their external morphology. Keratinous sheathing and obliterated sutures in late‐stage development have led to contradictory interpretations of cranial osteology for these species and has left it unclear whether the internal morphology of underlying bones of different casqued birds is arranged in a similar fashion. Here we compare the ontogeny for three of the independent casque acquisitions among Aves to clarify their constituent parts. To evaluate the null hypothesis that avian cranial ornaments possess similar anatomical patterns, we analyzed developmental series of skulls of southern cassowaries (Casuarius casuarius), maleos (Macrocephalon maleo), and helmeted guinea fowl (Numida meleagris) using μCT imaging. Sampling neonates and juveniles with incipient casques allowed us to track telescoping elements and measure growth. Our results point toward at least two modes of casque ontogeny among modern birds: (1) disunited, in which a midline chondrocranial element grows relatively slowly and posteriad to buttresses lateral dermatocranial bones (i.e. cassowaries), and (2) geminal, in which a rapidly growing casque is built from anteriad right‐left dermatocranial constituents only (i.e. Neognathae). These findings suggest that cassowaries are developmental outliers among extant casqued birds and extinct dinosaurs. Counterintuitively, this work identifies modern cassowaries—previously considered hallmark analogs for non‐avian dinosaurs—as poor osteo‐developmental models for studying the deep history of archosaur casque evolution.Support or Funding Information2018 American Association of Anatomists ‐ Visiting Scholarship (Todd L. Green); 2017 National Science Foundation ‐ Major Research Instrumentation Grant (Paul M. Gignac); 2016 Western Interior Paleontological Society ‐ Karl Hirsch Memorial Grant (Todd L. Green); 2015 National Science Foundation ‐ Early‐concept Grant for Exploratory Research (Paul M. Gignac); 2015 National Science Foundation ‐ Division of Environmental Biology (Paul M. Gignac)This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Presentation of the 2017 Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society to Caroline A.E. Strömberg

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Presentation of the 2017 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Ross Fargher

Presentation of the 2017 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society to Ross Fargher

Presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Medal to David Jablonski

Presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Medal to David Jablonski

Response by Ron Parsley for the presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award

Response by Ron Parsley for the presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award

Presentation of the 2016 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award to Ronald Parsley

Presentation of the 2016 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award to Ronald Parsley

Response by Ross Fargher for the presentation of the 2017 Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society

Response by Ross Fargher for the presentation of the 2017 Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society

Response by Caroline Strömberg for the presentation of the 2017 Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society

Response by Caroline Strömberg for the presentation of the 2017 Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society

Response by David Jablonski for the presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Medal

Response by David Jablonski for the presentation of the 2017 Paleontological Society Medal

А.В. MISSUNA: SUBJECTS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AND THEIR RESULTS

A.B. Missuna (1869—1922) was one of the first Russian women geologists. The most part of her scientific works were devoted to Quaternary glacial deposits, which she studied in the basins of Viliy, Dvina, Neman at the territory of Belarus and Litva. She designed the method of the terminal moraines studying and discovered new parts of its distribution. Missuna researched magmatic rocks of the Crimea. She was also the author of the works on fossils: Jurassic corals (13 new species), Carboniferous fishes (1 new species) and Miocene diatoms (2 new genuses and 18 new species). She created Geological cabinet at the Moscow Higher Women's Courses and taught there such subjects as petrography, general geology, paleontology, historiacal geology. She organized and conducted with women students the geological excursions in Moscow region, in Crimea, Urals. She was the first woman teacher of geological subjects in Russian Higher School. A.B.Missuna was a full member of the Imperial Moscow Society of Naturalists, St. Petersburg Mineralogical Society, Geological department of Imperial Society of Nature, Anthropology and Ethnography, as well as the member-founder of Russian Paleontological Society (nowadays Paleontological society at the RAS).

Response by Erle G. Kauffman for the 2014 Paleontological Society Medal

My first words this evening must of necessity be directed to the Paleontological Society and its selection committee for choosing me to receive this prestigious medal. I am profoundly grateful and deeply honored. I assure you that this award is one I shall treasure for the rest of my days and, although I have every intention of continuing my work in paleontology, I see it as a crowning tribute to a career that already has brought me boundless joy, pleasure, and satisfaction. On occasions such as this it is only natural to reflect on one’s career, to recall its high points, and to remember those who helped advance it through selfless gifts of time and knowledge, far exceeding that to be expected of any teacher or mentor. In my case, such reflection takes me back many years, to my initial ventures in paleontological research as a University of Michigan graduate student. There I first described a new Ordovician trilobite under the watchful eye of Professor Erwin Stumm and, based on that, published …

Response by Richard A. Fortey for the presentation of the 2016 Paleontological Society Medal

I gratefully thank the Paleontological Society for the recognition given to me in the award of this medal, which came as a wonderful surprise. Derek Briggs’s eloquent description of my life in paleontology is equally gratifying, although I struggle to recognize the figure decked in superlatives to which his address refers. I have always considered myself extraordinarily lucky to have been paid to do what I would have done anyway for nothing, ever since I collected my first trilobite at the age of fourteen. As I put it in one of my books: when I got my job at the Natural History Museum in London it was as if I had been instructed “amuse yourself—for money.” Richard A. Fortey I believe that good fortune has had as much a part to play as talent or hard work in any success I have enjoyed. I started out by going to Spitsbergen as an undergraduate, and discovering one of the most diverse trilobite faunas known, including completely new species and genera. In the kindly and distinguished Harry Whittington at Cambridge, I had the world trilobite authority ready placed to be my thesis advisor. I was there when Cambridge University was the epicenter …

Presentation of the 2014 Paleontological Society Medal to Erle G. Kauffman

Good evening members of the Paleontological Society, friends of paleontology, and guests. It is both a distinct honor and pleasure for me to have nominated and be the citationist for Erle Galen Kauffman as a recipient of the Paleontological Society Medal. Put simply, he is one of the most influential paleontologists of his generation. Erle was born and grew up in Washington, DC and eventually found his way to the University of Michigan where he received his Bachelor’s, Master’s, and culminated with his Ph.D. in 1961. From there, he started his professional career at the Smithsonian Institution, and initiated a number of very fruitful collaborations with colleagues both at that institution, most notably with Norm Sohl, and with numerous colleagues both nationally and internationally that would characterize the rest of his career. From there, he relocated to his beloved Colorado and started teaching at the CU-Boulder in 1980. In his last relocation, he moved to Indiana University in 1996 where he is currently a Professor Emeritus. In considering the qualities that make Erle such a worthy recipient of this distinguished medal, I think it is best to look at three components: his research, his mentorship of aspiring paleontologists, and his approach to life. But I think we also have to look beyond those aspects and consider his unwavering passion for the discipline, his ability to meld paleontology with a range of other disciplines, his emphasis on using field-based observations to delve into various pressing problems in the geosciences, his unceasing willingness to share his knowledge with all, and his mode of engaging all around him. As a scientist, Erle’s impact on the discipline reflects his interests in integrating paleontology into the broader spectrum of the Geosciences. This reflects the seemingly limitless range of his interests, knowledge base, and energy—an approach …

Response by Alycia L. Stigall for the presentation of the 2016 Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society

Thank you, Bruce, for your generous words. I deeply thank the Paleontological Society for recognizing me with this honor. I truly am very grateful and humbled to be selected as the 2016 Schuchert Award recipient. As a brachiopod worker who grew up Cincinnati, the Charles Schuchert award holds special significance to me. It is a great joy to receive this award bearing the name of such a notable Cincinnatian brachiopod worker. I am also deeply honored to now be included among the prestigious set of 44 prior awardees. It is particularly gratifying as I am only the fifth woman to receive this award, and first woman who was a mother at the time of the award. Alycia L. Stigall I am extremely thankful to be a paleontologist today. Paleontology is becoming an ever more inclusive and collaborative science. As I look out from this podium, I see a wonderful diversity of paleontologists, diversity of scientific approaches, diversity of focal taxa, diversity of gender, diversity of ethnicities and nationalities. Our diversity makes our discipline stronger. However, barriers to full and equitable participation in science for women and minorities remain considerable. Implicit bias, higher expectations, under-recognition, harassment, and isolation remain substantial concerns. As a society …

Response by Shanan E. Peters for the presentation of the 2014 Charles Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society

Thank you Michael, for your kind words, and thank you to the Paleontological Society for this recognition. It is a humbling privilege to have my name appended to such a distinguished list of previous awardees. It is also thrilling that this award bears the name of the remarkable Ohio-born paleontologist, Charles Schuchert, who began his pursuit of paleontology in much the same way that this Ohio boy did—plucking fossils from the gray slopes of the Cincinnatian. Shanan E. Peters Some eleven years ago, in his acceptance speech for this same award, Steven Holland acknowledged the Paleobiology Database and the vision of John Alroy and Charles Marshall in creating it. Steve predicted then that beyond the analysis of Phanerozoic diversity, the Paleobiology Database would become an integral part of our field programs because it would “ensure that we build upon the data of the generations that have come before us and that our data are preserved for the generations that follow.” Eleven years …

Presentation of the 2016 Paleontological Society Pojeta Award to Judy Scotchmoor

It is a great pleasure to award Judy Scotchmoor, former Assistant Director for Outreach and Education at the University of California’s Museum of Paleontology (UCMP), the Paleontological Society’s Pojeta Award. Judy is perhaps best known as a science educator and many of her most significant accomplishments have been in that context. However, Judy’s association and involvement in paleontology has included much more than this. Judy was a renowned middle school science teacher at Marin Country Day School when she first came into contact with paleontology. Her love of science was enormous and she dedicated herself to sharing that love and excitement with her students. This also meant experiencing science herself, not just teaching it, and this led her to seek out opportunities to participate first hand. Paleontology had been of interest since her undergraduate days and she sought out opportunities to participate, including a Museum of the Rockies course in Bozeman, Montana followed by volunteer work as a field assistant in the Precambrian of the White Sea in Russia, and in the Cretaceous of the North Slope of Alaska. Those experiences, followed by a weekend teachers’ workshop, convinced her that paleontology was both her first love as well as an exciting source of topics for her teaching. Her passion and commitment to paleontology was so strong that she spent her next sabbatical year volunteering in UCMP’s preparation lab where she learned fossil preparation and worked in the field at …

Response by Jack Wittry for the presentation of the 2015 Harrell L. Strimple Award of the Paleontological Society

I would like to thank the Paleontological Society for honoring me this way. And a special thank you to Ian Glasspoll for all his efforts, which made this possible. Jack Wittry To be considered for the Strimple Award is an honor. To win …

Response by Jonathan Payne for the presentation of the 2015 Schuchert Award of the Paleontological Society

Thank you, Andy, for your kind words. And thank you to the Paleontological Society for choosing to recognize my research with this award. It is an honor to be named alongside so many of the people who have inspired, instructed, and befriended me over the past two decades. Jonathan Payne I was introduced to paleontology by a geochemist. When I was six, Rich April of Colgate University took his two older kids, my brother, and me out to a quarry in Devonian rocks from the Hamilton Group to look for trilobites. As most of you have no doubt already guessed, we found many more brachiopods than trilobites. But Rich found one beautiful specimen of Dipleura dekayi (Green, 1832) and gave it to me because I was the only kid over five and therefore least likely to break it. It took a few more years, but I eventually found one on my own, a more complete and slightly larger individual. I found it not while fossil hunting, but rather, in the course of throwing rocks into a stream with a friend. That specimen is in my office today. Does this abbreviated prehistory of a paleontologist explain anything that …

Response by Derek E. G. Briggs for the presentation of the 2015 Paleontological Society Medal

Derek E. G. Briggs Thank you Jakob for your kind words. You didn’t mention some of the exciting projects that you and I have collaborated on—the mystery of machaeridians, for example, which we showed were armored polychaetes, and the reconstruction of the plumage colors in the Jurassic dinosaur Anchiornis using the arrangement of the melanosomes in its feathers. I am enormously pleased and honored to receive this recognition from the Paleontological Society, and from you my peers, friends, and colleagues. I have enjoyed a wonderful welcome from this community since I moved to the United States in 2003, and for that I am extremely grateful. You’ve sent me great graduate students, supported my research proposals (or at least some of them!), elected me President of the Society, and this medal is surely the icing on the cake. But this award, like any other, owes much to those who provided support along the way. The list is long and time is short—Mark Wilson’s instructions about this part of the proceedings are very clear—five minutes only: ‘longer speeches are quickly losing popularity …