Morphological, Crystallographic, and Stratigraphic Data in Cladistic Analyses of Blastoid Phylogeny

201-257http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48648/2/ID515.pd

CalcAxes: A Program for Computation of Calcite Crystallographic Axis Orientations

327-363http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/48639/2/ID506.pd

Time-lapse Camera System for Monitoring Short- and Long-term Sedimentary Processes

Time-lapse photography has seen limited use as a method for observing sedimentary processes. A problem with past techniques is the use of expensive components, limiting availability for most applications. The purpose of this project is to develop a low-cost, modular time-lapse system for both short- and long-term deployment in the field to photographically monitor various sedimentary processes, such as erosion and deposition of shoreline sediments during a single storm event or seasonal sand dune migration. Images that are taken at regular intervals can be compiled into a video to display the effects of the processes under observation. Other considerations for the camera units besides cost are that the cameras must be as inconspicuous as possible and able to run reliably for long periods of time without power supply or storage space issues. We use inexpensive 10 megapixel point and shoot cameras with a 16 GB memory card and the open source Canon Hack Development Kit (CHDK) installed. CHDK allows customized user control of various features and capabilities within the camera, including the ability to run scripts written in uBASIC or Lua. We use an intervalometer script in place of a physical intervalometer unit, further reducing hardware costs. The unit’s power source is a 12V battery, either a compact sealed lead acid battery for short-term deployments, such as to monitor a storm event, or a deep cycle battery for long-term deployments. A solar panel can optionally be used to recharge the batteries and prolong the deployment. The cameras are enclosed in a waterproof, dustproof container to protect them from adverse conditions and theft. The advantage of this system over trail cameras is the level of control and higher resolution for comparable cost. Various open source or commercial software packages can compile images into a video. The original image can be reduced in size to an appropriate video resolution, or a section of the images can be cropped to produce a more detailed video of a smaller area. The system we have developed costs less than $300. It allows capture of up to 5,400 images at intervals as frequent as one image per minute without changing memory cards, and even without a solar panel allows deployments of up to one month between site visits to change batteries

Morphometric analysis of lumbar vertebra UMP 67-28: Implications for spinal function and phylogeny of the Miocene Moroto hominoid

Fossil hominoid remains from the Miocene site of Moroto II include a well preserved lumbar vertebra (UMP 67-28). This vertebra is associated with a palate that has been included in the hominoid tribe Afropithecini and referred by some to Afropithecus. UMP 67-28 originally was described as having close morphological affinities with lumbar vertebrae from African apes and humans (Walker & Rose, 1968). The present analysis, however, indicates that UMP 67-28 shares no exclusive proportional or structural similarities with lumbar vertebrae from any particular extant catarrhine. The Moroto vertebra is the size of lumbar elements from female chimpanzees and orang-utans or large male cercopithecoids. Regression analysis of vertebral body surface area suggests that the individual represented by UMP 67-28 had a body weight of approximately 38 kg. UMP 67-28 is similar to large-bodied hominoids in general, in position and orientation of its transverse process, absence of anapophyses, inclination of its neural spine, and pedicular shape, marking the earliest appearance in the catarrhine fossil record of lumbar morphology resembling that of modern hominoids. Conversely, vertebral body proportions in UMP 67-28 most closely resemble those in male baboons, and in other traits the specimen cannot be differentiated between hominoids and cercopithecoids. The overall morphology of UMP 67-28 indicates that lumbar vertebrae of the Moroto hominoid were mole derived toward the great ape condition than those of Proconsul heseloni and P. nyanzae. In contrast to Proconsul, UMP 67-28 shares features with other dorsostable-backed mammals, suggesting that the Moroto hominoid and Proconsul possessed very different locomotor capabilities. Dental traits linking the Moroto hominoid with other afropithecins are thought to correspond functionally to a fundamental shift in diet, relative to the primitive catarrhine condition. It is possible that evolution of the lumbar region of early hominoids toward the morphotype of extant large-bodied hominoids, evidenced in UMP 67-28, was adaptively driven by modifications in substrate use coincident with changes in resource acquisition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/31743/1/0000682.pd

The Role of Storm Winds in Shaping Dunes Along Southern and Southeastern Lake Michigan

It has been hypothesized that rates of coastal dune growth and migration depend largely on the frequency and intensity of storms. We are pooling observations from three separate research sites to study effects of storms along Lake Michigan. At our southern site, Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, we use marked trees and erosion pins to monitor sand movement on two large blowout dunes with north-facing troughs. From Oct. 2010 to May 2011 over 80% of the erosion on the stoss slopes occurred during four storms with strong northwest winds. The greatest erosion occurred during a March storm after a thaw had removed ice between surface sand grains. During the winter, sand eroded from the stoss slope tends to freeze in place near the dune crest. Thus deposition on the middle and lower lee slopes does not immediately follow storms but is delayed until the spring thaw. At the Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area (southeastern shore) we use an array of 211 pins and six anemometers to monitor sand movement and wind patterns in a complex blowout with a large northwest-facing trough and smaller troughs facing west and northwest. Topographic steering of winds in the dune is accompanied by a loss of energy. Sand transportation is most effective when storm winds approach the opening of a trough at a relatively low angle. The storm with the strongest northwest winds during the 8-month measuring period (10/26/10–10/28/10) accounted for 25% of the period’s measured sand transport. Farther north, at Hoffmaster State Park, we use 135 pins and an anemometer tower to monitor an active foredune and a west-facing blowout on an established foredune ridge. The average change at pins along the foredune during the 10/26–10/28 storm was 24% of the average measured seasonal change. Wetting of the beach by waves appears to have inhibited sand transportation to the foredune during the early part of this storm. Although high-energy wind events appear to be responsible for a significant part of sand transport at all three sites, the amount of transport also depends on the angle of the wind, the wetting of sand by waves and precipitation, and the presence of ice between sand grains