Postmortem transport in fossil and modern shelled cephalopods

The chambered shells of cephalopod mollusks, such as modern Nautilus and fossil ammonoids, have the potential to float after death, which could result in significant postmortem transport of shells away from living habitats. Such transport would call into question these clades’ documented biogeographic distributions and therefore the many (paleo)biological interpretations based on them. It is therefore imperative to better constrain the likelihood and extent of postmortem transport in modern and fossil cephalopods. Here, I combine the results of classic experiments on postmortem buoyancy with datasets on cephalopod shell form to determine that only those shells with relatively high inflation are likely to float for a significant interval after death and therefore potentially experience postmortem transport. Most ammonoid cephalopods have shell forms making postmortem transport unlikely. Data on shell forms and geographic ranges of early Late Cretaceous cephalopod genera demonstrate that even genera with shell forms conducive to postmortem buoyancy do not, in fact, show artificially inflated biogeographic ranges relative to genera with non-buoyant morphologies. Finally, georeferenced locality data for living nautilid specimens and dead drift shells indicate that most species have relatively small geographic ranges and experience limited drift. Nautilus pompilius is the exception, with a broad Indo-Pacific range and drift shells found far from known living populations. Given the similarity of N. pompilius to other nautilids in its morphology and ecology, it seems unlikely that this species would have a significantly different postmortem fate than its close relatives. Rather, it is suggested that drift shells along the east African coast may indicate the existence of modern (or recently extirpated) living populations of nautilus in the western Indian Ocean, which has implications for the conservation of these cephalopods

Communicating Privilege and Faculty Allyship

As individuals who use their privilege to reduce prejudice, educate others about social justice, and actively stop discrimination, faculty allies can play a vital role in transforming universities to be more equitable, diverse, and inclusive. However, discrepancies persist in how faculty define privilege and communicate allyship. Drawing from standpoint theory, we examined discursive divergences in how 105 full-time faculty defined and experienced privilege and how they enacted allyship in the workplace. Participants tended to conceptualize privilege as a set of advantages and lack of structural barriers for people based on their group membership(s). Discursive differences emerged regarding the degree to which faculty participants perceived privilege to be un/earned and rooted in structural power, and some participants took ownership of their social privilege while others discursively elided it. When asked to identify specific ally actions, participants often described broad behaviors that aimed to help individuals in interpersonal contexts but did not address actions aimed at dismantling inequitable power structures, revising biased policies, and transforming toxic organizational cultures. Our findings highlight the need for trainings that clarify conceptualizations of privilege and help faculty translate their understanding of allyship into communicative actions that stop discrimination at interpersonal and institutional levels

109th Congress

Environmental protection concerns span a wide variety of issues, including clear air, water quality, chemical security, and environmental aspects of other major issue areas, such as energy, transportation, disaster relief and cleanup, and defense. This report provides an overview of key environmental issues receiving attention in the 109th Congress. A number of environmental measures have been the subject of congressional activity, some of them as part of comprehensive bills and laws on broader subjects such as energy and transportation. Appropriations for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) affect many of the programs and issues discussed in this report

Self organising maps for visualising and modelling

The paper describes the motivation of SOMs (Self Organising Maps) and how they are generally more accessible due to the wider available modern, more powerful, cost-effective computers. Their advantages compared to Principal Components Analysis and Partial Least Squares are discussed. These allow application to non-linear data, are not so dependent on least squares solutions, normality of errors and less influenced by outliers. In addition there are a wide variety of intuitive methods for visualisation that allow full use of the map space. Modern problems in analytical chemistry include applications to cultural heritage studies, environmental, metabolomic and biological problems result in complex datasets. Methods for visualising maps are described including best matching units, hit histograms, unified distance matrices and component planes. Supervised SOMs for classification including multifactor data and variable selection are discussed as is their use in Quality Control. The paper is illustrated using four case studies, namely the Near Infrared of food, the thermal analysis of polymers, metabolomic analysis of saliva using NMR, and on-line HPLC for pharmaceutical process monitoring

Data from: Marine life in a greenhouse world: cephalopod biodiversity and biogeography during the early Late Cretaceous

Two end-member models are proposed to explain marine biotic responses to greenhouse conditions. Global warming and increasing sea level may: (1) promote dispersal of marine species, leading to larger geographic ranges and decreased speciation and biodiversity, or (2) form isolated epicontinental basins that host endemic radiations, leading to smaller geographic ranges and increased speciation and biodiversity. The Cenomanian–Turonian (C–T) interval, marked by greenhouse warming, sea level rise, ocean anoxia, and biotic turnover, presents an opportunity to test these two end-member models. In particular, how cephalopods responded to these global changes has not been clear. A global database of 7,262 cephalopod occurrences was used to evaluate biodiversity changes through the C–T interval. Both species- and genus-level diversity peaked in the Late Cenomanian. The global diversity drop across the C/T boundary was modest; rather, diversity was low during the Middle Cenomanian and Middle Turonian, times of brief cooling. Regional variations in diversity responses may reflect the degree and timing of environmental perturbations within different oceanographic settings. Surprisingly, cephalopod faunas in the European Platform, Western Interior, and South Atlantic all shifted equatorward across the C/T boundary, whereas other regions saw no change in latitudinal distributions. Global generic geographic ranges did not change through the C–T interval, but the percentage of cosmopolitan genera did increase significantly across the C/T, both globally and within the Western Interior and Europe, whereas cosmopolitans dropped in the Pacific and South Atlantic. Neither end-member model for biodiversity change in a greenhouse world is supported for C–T cephalopods, as diversity increased without an associated increase in geographic range. It may be that sea level rise and global warming led to both endemic radiations in epicontinental basins and an increase in cosmopolitan taxa in some regions, demonstrating the importance of combining global and regional scale analyses

The hydrostatics of paleozoic ectocochleate cephalopods (Nautiloidea and endoceratoidea) with implications for modes of life and early colonization of the pelagic zone

Understanding the hydrostatic properties of ectocochleate cephalopods is essential to study the functional morphology of their shells. The conditions for neutral buoyancy, static orientation of the living animal, and their hydrostatic stability are key factors to determine the physical relationships and constraints on cephalopod life habits and paleoecology. The hydrostatics of early orthoconic and cyrtoconic Paleozoic cephalopods were investigated by digitally reconstructing morphotypes within Nautiloidea and Endoceratoidea. Morphotypes were chosen from several traditional orders and include endogastric cyrtocones (Ellesmerocerida and Discosorida), exogastric cyrtocones (Oncocerida), and longi-orthocones (Orthocerida and Endocerida). The extant nautilid, Nautilus pompilius, was also modeled as a reference for the hydrostatics of the Paleozoic cephalopods. All cyrtocone models have similar hydrostatic stability to the Nautilus and only the ellesmerocerid was found to be negatively buoyant. The hydrostatics of the neutrally buoyant cyrtocones suggests that they behaved as relatively poor-swim-ming demersal or nekto-benthic predators. This mode of life aligns with the largely ner-itic distribution of individuals belonging to these clades in the Paleozoic. In contrast, the orthocones studied were all capable of neutral buoyancy, much more stable than the Nautilus model, and all had vertical syn vivo orientations in a static setting. The hydrostatic properties of these morphotypes and their largely pelagic distribution support their role as vertical migrants. However, adapically distributed cameral deposits and endosiphuncular deposits would reduce stability, easing deviation from a vertical orientation. These adaptations, along with dorsal color patterns on some species, suggest that active locomotion in orthocones may have been more important than previously thought

The hydrostatics of paleozoic ectocochleate cephalopods (Nautiloidea and endoceratoidea) with implications for modes of life and early colonization of the pelagic zone

Understanding the hydrostatic properties of ectocochleate cephalopods is essential to study the functional morphology of their shells. The conditions for neutral buoyancy, static orientation of the living animal, and their hydrostatic stability are key factors to determine the physical relationships and constraints on cephalopod life habits and paleoecology. The hydrostatics of early orthoconic and cyrtoconic Paleozoic cephalopods were investigated by digitally reconstructing morphotypes within Nautiloidea and Endoceratoidea. Morphotypes were chosen from several traditional orders and include endogastric cyrtocones (Ellesmerocerida and Discosorida), exogastric cyrtocones (Oncocerida), and longi-orthocones (Orthocerida and Endocerida). The extant nautilid, Nautilus pompilius, was also modeled as a reference for the hydrostatics of the Paleozoic cephalopods. All cyrtocone models have similar hydrostatic stability to the Nautilus and only the ellesmerocerid was found to be negatively buoyant. The hydrostatics of the neutrally buoyant cyrtocones suggests that they behaved as relatively poor-swim-ming demersal or nekto-benthic predators. This mode of life aligns with the largely ner-itic distribution of individuals belonging to these clades in the Paleozoic. In contrast, the orthocones studied were all capable of neutral buoyancy, much more stable than the Nautilus model, and all had vertical syn vivo orientations in a static setting. The hydrostatic properties of these morphotypes and their largely pelagic distribution support their role as vertical migrants. However, adapically distributed cameral deposits and endosiphuncular deposits would reduce stability, easing deviation from a vertical orientation. These adaptations, along with dorsal color patterns on some species, suggest that active locomotion in orthocones may have been more important than previously thought

Energy Provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (P.L. 111-5)

This report discusses the energy appropriations in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5). It includes background information, a summary of provisions, and detailed explanations of the relevant appropriations and tax provisions