The Causes of Extinction: Setting the Modern Biodiversity Crisis in Context

This talk will delve into the basis of the linkage between the causes of ancient extinctions in the context of the modern biodiversity crisis. With its decidedly biblical overtones, the phenomenon of extinction has intrigued and puzzled religious leaders, philosophers, and scientists for (literally) millennia. If the capacity of humans to effect the environment has reached the intensity level of a major natural process, and this capacity cannot be curtailed over a reasonable time frame, it is disturbing to note that the state of the environment at present is, in many ways, similar to its state just prior to the end-Permian extinction event, which was the largest extinction event in the whole of Earth history and the last time sea level stood as low as it does today.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security Studies.event web page, event photos, MP4 vide

Alternative 2D and 3D Form Characterization Approaches to the Automated Identification of Biological Species

Few have sought to compare the performance of alternative types of morphological data for biological species identification. This investigation contrasts results of form characterization via form factors, superposed landmark coordinates, landmark-registered semilandmark outlines, 3D semilandmark networks, and raw digital images for a test set of seven Recent planktonic foraminifer species. While all data types performed better than the qualitative assessment of morphological variation by human taxonomists, landmark-registered semilandmark outlines and raw digital images delivered the best performance in the context of approaches that could reasonably serve as the basis for fully automated species identification systems