A comparison between dinosaur footprints from the Middle Jurassic of the Isle of Skye, Scotland, UK, and Shell, Wyoming, USA

Measurements of Middle Jurassic tridactyl dinosaur tracks from the Bathonian, Lealt Shale, Valtos Sandstone, Duntulm and Kilmaluag formations of the Isle of Skye, UK, are compared to the same measurements taken for dinosaur footprints from the Bajocian, Gypsum Spring and the Bathonian, Sundance Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA. Principal component analysis of the data suggests that the smaller footprints from the Valtos Sandstone and Kilmaluag formations are indistinguishable from the footprints of the Sundance Formation. The single footprint from the Lealt Shale Formation is similar to the larger footprints from the Valtos Sandstone Formation. The footprints from the Duntulm and Gypsum Springs formations form distinct groupings from all other footprints. Four different groupings of dinosaur footprints can be recognized from the principal component analysis that may represent at least four different types of dinosaur

Jurassic dinoflagellate cyst stratigraphy of Store Koldewey, North-East Greenland

The Jurassic of Store Koldewey comprises a Middle Jurassic succession towards the south and an Upper Jurassic succession towards the north. Both successions onlap crystalline basement and coarse sediments dominate. Three main lithostratigraphical units are recognised: the Pelion Formation, including the Spath Plateau Member, the Payer Dal Formation and the Bernbjerg Formation. Rich marine macrofaunas include Boreal ammonites and the successions are dated as Late Bathonian – Early Callovian and Late Oxfordian – Early Kimmeridgian on the basis of new collections combined with material in earlier collections. Fine-grained horizons and units have been analysed for dinoflagellate cysts and the stratigraphy of the diverse and well-preserved flora has been integrated with the Boreal ammonite stratigraphy. The dinoflagellate floras correlate with contemporaneous floras from Milne Land, Jameson Land and Hold with Hope farther to the south in East Greenland, and with Peary Land in North Greenland and Svalbard towards the north. The Middle Jurassic flora shows local variations in East Greenland whereas the Upper Jurassic flora gradually changes northwards in East Greenland. A Boreal flora occurs in Peary Land and Svalbard. The characteristic and stratigraphically important species Perisseiasphaeridium pannosum and Oligosphaeridium patulum have their northernmost occurrence on Store Koldewey, whereas Taeniophora iunctispina and Adnatosphaeridium sp. extend as far north as Peary Land. Assemblages of dinoflagellate cysts are used to characterise significant regional flooding events and extensive sequence stratigraphic units

Nature of Names: Japanese vernacular nomenclature in natural science

Since prehistory Japanese people have named animals, plants and natural phenomena using their own language. Neither the advent of Chinese as a written language in the sixth century nor subsequently of modern Western science and its associated literature in the nineteenth substantially changed this practice. Vernacular names remain the principal vehicle for natural knowledge within Japan, offering beginners a path to advanced scholarship that does not require the acquisition of a foreign language. They are not subject to formal laws such as those governing scientific nomenclature but instead to the rule of consensus. They nevertheless represent a parallel system based on more localized concepts that at species level is equally or more granular than scientific nomenclature, and their cultural grounding in the Japanese language means that they link to broader networks of local knowledge. This paper explores the history of Japanese vernacular names in natural history and examines their scientific, epistemic and social functions. Their growth in number and sophistication following the scientific reforms of the Meiji period is linked to the establishment of a national education system that sought to teach Western science without adopting its parent languages. Examples are given of historical and contemporary usage of Japanese names in natural history, and the ongoing debates over their use, function and regulation are reviewed.M.S., Science, Technology, and Society -- Drexel University, 201

High-resolution UV spectrum of the benzene—N2 van der Waals complex

The rotationally resolved spectrum of the 610 band of the S1 ← S0 electronic transition of the benzene—N2 van der Waals complex has been recorded and 119 transitions assigned. The C6H6·N2 complex, produced in a pulsed molecular beam, was detected by mass-selected two-photon two-colour ionization employing a high-resolution (ΔνUV = 100 MHz, fwhm) pulsed-amplified cw laser for the resonant intermediate excitation. The observed rotational structure is that of a rigid symmetric top with weaker additional rotational transitions most likely arising from the free internal rotation of the N2 in the plane parallel to the benzene ring. The N2 is located parallel to the benzene ring at a distance of 3.50 Å; this decreases by 45 mÅ in the excited electronic state

Heterogeneous perturbations in the Doppler-free S1 ← S0 two-photon spectrum of benzene: Evidence for intrastate coupling

Rotational perturbations are identified in Doppler-free two-photon spectra of the 1410 and 1410110 vibronic bands in C6H6. Evidence is found that Coriolis coupling between some of the rotational levels of two distinct vibrational states within S1 is the mechanism responsible. This coupling mechanism is thought to be responsible for irreversible intramolecular relaxation at higher excess energies and higher vibrational state densities

Sub-doppler two-photon spectrum of asymmetric rotor molecules

The Doppler-free two-photon excitation spectrum of the qqQ branch of the 1410 vibrational band of the S1(1B2u) ← S0(1A1g) transition of benzene-d1 has been recorded using a cw single-mode dye laser coupled to an external concentric resonator. The spectrum has been analysed using a non-rigid Watson Hamiltonian. More than 200 lines with J up to 20 have been assigned and the rotational constants which best reproduce the spectrum are A1v = 0.181435, B1v = 0.169990, C1v = 0.089055 cm−1. The Ka = odd lines of the qqQ5(J) subbranch show small and quite regular perturbations of 60 ± 5 MHz which are probably due to a coupling to another vibrational state of the S1 manifold

Mixing of the vibrational angular momentum components of multiply degenerate vibronic states of benzene by vibrational l-type resonance

The rotationally resolved spectra of the 6011002 and 6011602 vibronic transitions of benzene at low rotational temperat reported and analyzed in detail. Deperturbed spectroscopic constants for the 61102 and 61162 states are reported which reproduce the observed line positions to within experimental accuracy. The splitting of 17.9 cm−1 between the two subbands of the 6011002 transition and of 6.2 cm−1 for the 6011602 transition is found to be due to vibrational l-type resonances with matrix element 8.91 and 2.65 cm−1, respectively. These large resonances cause strong distortions of the rotational structure and mix the vibrational angular momentum substates ν6minus-or-plus sign + 2ν100 and ν6± + 2ν10±2 nearly completely and the substates ν6minus-or-plus sign + 2ν160 and ν6± + 2ν16minus-or-plus sign2 substantially. The importance of the mixing for the intramolecular vibrational redistribution (IVR) and the decay behaviour of S1 benzene is discussed