Paleomagnetism of Eocene volcanic tuffs from Laramide foreland basins: Implications for the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale

Volcanic tuff samples were collected from twenty-nine tuff horizons in Laramide foreland basins and measured for their paleomagnetism. The results were combined with high precision radiometric ages of the same tuffs to evaluate eight competing calibration models for the Eocene part of the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS) by comparing the measured polarity to that predicted by each age model. Of the eight models, the New Willwood model is tentatively favored and recommended as the best alternative yet available to the current GPTS calibration. It not only removes an ongoing chronostratigraphic discrepancy in the Greater Green River Basin, but also provides a new temporal framework to which regional chronostratigraphic data are correlated most coherently. This new calibration model implies a shorter duration for the early Eocene and the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum and also suggests that rates of seafloor spreading were more variable than traditionally modeled in the GPTS

Chronology and Faunal Evolution of the Middle Eocene Bridgerian North American Land Mammal “Age”: Achieving High Precision Geochronology

The age of the Bridgerian/Uintan boundary has been regarded as one of the most important outstanding problems in North American Land Mammal “Age” (NALMA) biochronology. The Bridger Basin in southwestern Wyoming preserves one of the best stratigraphic records of the faunal boundary as well as the preceding Bridgerian NALMA. In this dissertation, I first developed a chronological framework for the Eocene Bridger Formation including the age of the boundary, based on a combination of magnetostratigraphy and U-Pb ID-TIMS geochronology. Within the temporal framework, I attempted at making a regional correlation of the boundary-bearing strata within the western U.S., and also assessed the body size evolution of three representative taxa from the Bridger Basin within the context of Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. Integrating radioisotopic, magnetostratigraphic and astronomical data from the early to middle Eocene, I reviewed various calibration models for the Geological Time Scale and intercalibration of 40Ar/39Ar data among laboratories and against U-Pb data, toward the community goal of achieving a high precision and well integrated Geological Time Scale. In Chapter 2, I present a magnetostratigraphy and U-Pb zircon geochronology of the Bridger Formation from the Bridger Basin in southwestern Wyoming. The ~560 meter composite section spans from the lower Bridger B to the Bridger E, including the Bridgerian/Uintan NALMA boundary in the uppermost part of the section. Analysis of samples from 90 sites indicates two paleomagnetic reversals that are correlated to an interval spanning Chrons C22n, C21r, and C21n by comparison to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale (GPTS). This correlation places the Bridgerian/Uintan faunal boundary within Chron C21n, during the initial cooling phase following the peak of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum. Based on the bio- and magnetostratigraphic correlation, I provide correlation of other Bridgerian/Uintan boundary-bearing sections to the GPTS, demonstrating that in the western North America, the Bridgerian/Uintan boundary occurs everywhere in Chron C21n. In addition, U-Pb zircon geochronological analyses were performed on three ash beds from the Bridger Formation. High-precision U-Pb dates were combined with the paleomagnetic polarity data of the same ash beds as well as the integrative chronostratigraphy of the basin to assess prior calibration models for the Eocene part of the GPTS. The data from the Bridger Formation indicate that the Option 3 age model of Westerhold et al. (2008) best reconciles the geochronological data from all of the ash beds except for one. Thus I favor this Option 3 model, which indicates the ages of 56.33 Ma and 66.08 Ma for the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum and Cretaceous/Paleogene boundary, respectively. In Chapter 3, the body size evolution of three mammalian taxa from the Bridgerian NALMA was analyzed within the context of Bergmann’s Rule, which poses a correlation between the size of endotherms and climate (latitude). The Bridgerian NALMA is from a time of global cooling following the peak of the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, thus according to Bergmann’s Rule, the Bridgerian mammals are expected to increase in size. This hypothesis is tested among Notharctus, Hyopsodus, and Orohippus, using the size of molar dentition as a proxy for their body size. These taxa represent three different ecomorphs, and I investigated if these taxa showed a pattern of body size change consistent with the prediction made by Bergmann’s Rule, and how their ecological adaptation may have affected their response to the climate change. Prior to analyzing the body size evolution, specimens of Notharctus and Hyopsodus were identified to species based on dental characters. This practice differs from previous studies in which species identification relied on relative size of the individuals and stratigraphic levels of origin. Within the new framework of morphologically determined species identification, five species of Notharctus were recognized, among which, N. pugnax, N. robustior and N. sp. indet. exhibited statistically significant body size increase in the time span of interest. Based on morphological analyses of Hyopsodus dentition, I recognized five species. Dentition-based body size analysis showed that H. lepidus and H. despiciens exhibited a statistically significant change towards larger size within the sampled interval. When analyzed at the generic level, a statistically significant increase was observed for both Notharctus and Hyopsodus. Finally, a genus-level analysis of Orohippus showed a lack of statistically significant size increase over the study interval. Thus, among the three taxa from the Bridgerian, Bergmann’s Rule is supported by Notharctus and Hyopsodus, at least at the genus level, but not by Orohippus, although the patterns are more variable at the intraspecific level. In Chapter 4, 40Ar/39Ar dates were obtained from sanidines from the middle Eocene Henrys Fork tuff and Upper Carboniferous Fire Clay tonstein, with the goal of making highly precise measurements of these two samples, keyed to the Fish Canyon monitor standard. Analytically, both samples were well characterized, as had been shown previously. The irradiation disk was arranged such that there would have been control from the Fish Canyon surrounding each of the unknown pits. However, due to several complications in the lab during the course of the experiment, only the analyses from one run disk (Disk 677) were of the quality needed for the goals of the study. As a result, the Fish Canyon sanidine standards that were irradiated near the center of the irradiation disk had to be discarded, and thus, the neutron fluence could not be mapped out precisely across the entire disk. The 40Ar/39Ar age relative to Fish Canyon sanidines is 47.828 ± 0.205 Ma and 311.937 ± 1.282 Ma for the Henrys Fork tuff and Fire Clay tonstein, respectively (1σ, including error on the age of the monitor). Because the ages were both offset about the same amount, I explored the option of using the U-Pb ID-TIMS ages of the Henrys Fork tuff and Fire Clay tonstein to test the agreement in the chronometers. The Henrys Fork tuff was dated at 48.260 ± 0.107 Ma (1σ, including error on the age of the monitor) using the Fire Clay sanidines and assuming its age is the U-Pb zircon age. The Fire Clay tonstein was dated at 314.593 ± 0.699 Ma (1σ, including error on the age of the monitor), using the Henrys Fork sanidines and assuming its age is the U/Pb zircon age. Although the complications encountered render these data unpublishable, they show great promise as the ages of each sanidine sample, tied to the other ash using the other ash’s U-Pb age, give results that are in close agreement between the two chronometers on the same sample (e.g., 314.593 ± 0.699 Ma vs. 314.554 ± 0.020 Ma at 1σ for sanidine and zircon respectively from the Fire Clay tonstein, and 48.260 ± 0.107 Ma vs. 48.265 ± 0.008 Ma 1σ for sanidine and zircon respectively from the Henrys Fork tuff)

A strategy for cross-calibrating U–Pb chronology and astrochronology of sedimentary sequences: An example from the Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA

Astronomical calibration of the geological timescale has been limited until recently by the precision and accuracy of radioisotopic dates, especially for pre-Neogene records. Uncertainties for radioisotopic dates of older strata were typically much larger than a single precessional cycle, and dates were often sparse, leading to the practice of orbital tuning of cyclic strata in order to astronomically calibrate the desired interval. Ideally, in order to test the assumptions of astronomical calibration with geochronology, it is necessary that the precision of radioisotopic dates be comparable to the period of the cycle being tested. The new U–Pb CA-TIMS (chemical abrasion–thermal ionization mass spectrometry) zircon dates reported here conform to this precision requirement, with 2σ analytical uncertainties from ±11000 to ±52 000 years for seven volcanic ashes from the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation. The zircon dates have simple distributions with few outliers and allow accurate estimations of the eruption ages with potential inaccuracies of less than precessional cycle. The Eocene Green River Formation (Wyoming, USA) has long been recognized as a record of cyclicly- deposited lacustrine sediments, and the abundant intercalated volcanic ashes make it a suitable place to test new approaches to astronomical calibration of cyclic strata. The abundance of different types of marker beds, including tuffs that are intercalated with the sedimentary cycles, guarantee an unambiguous correlation between sampling locations of dated tuffs on the margins of the basin and the basin center where the cyclicity is best developed, thus reducing any stratigraphic uncertainties to a fraction of (hypothesized) precession cycle. Tuning-based orbital age models, accepted by the previous geochronology, significantly deviate from the new geochronology, whereas a previously rejected model that assumes a short eccentricity period of 125 ky is now allowed. In order to test possible explanations for the apparent 125 ky period, such as changes in orbital periods, or gaps in the sedimentary record, we present an iterative strategy to select future ashes for dating such that the astronomical calibration/testing is optimized. We iteratively contrast two ad-hoc age models that bracket the linear interpolation between the dated ashes. The optimal intervals for further dating are located where the deviations between the models exceed our reported uncertainties. We propose that the iterative approach described here should become the standard for establishing a rigorous orbital calibration of the stratigraphic record where sufficient ashes exist

A Late Cretaceous mammal from Brazil and the first radioisotopic age for the Bauru Group

In the last three decades, records of tribosphenidan mammals from India, continental Africa, Madagascar and South America have challenged the notion of a strictly Laurasian distribution of the group during the Cretaceous. Here, we describe a lower premolar from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation, SãoPaulo State, Brazil. It differs from all known fossil mammals, except for a putative eutherian from the same geologic unity and Deccanolestes hislopi, from the Maastrichtian of India. The incompleteness of the material precludes narrowing down its taxonomic attribution further than Tribosphenida, butit is larger than most coeval mammals and shows a thin layer of parallel crystallite enamel. The new taxon helps filling two major gaps in the fossil record: the paucity of Mesozoic mammals in more northern parts of South Americaand of tribosphenidans in the Cretaceous of that continent. In addition, high-precision U-Pb geochronology provided a post-Turonian maximal age (≤87.8 Ma) for the type stratum, which is overlain by the dinosaur-bearing Marília Formation, constraining the age of the Adamantina Formation at the site to late Coniacian?late Maastrichtian. This represents the first radioisotopic age for the Bauru Group, a key stratigraphic unit for the study of Cretaceous tetrapods in Gondwana.Fil: Castro, Mariela. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Goin, Francisco Javier. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Ortiz Jaureguizar, Edgardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Paleontología Vertebrados; ArgentinaFil: Vieytes, Emma Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. División Zoología de Vertebrados; ArgentinaFil: Tsukui, Kaori. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Ramezani, Jahandar. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Estados UnidosFil: Batezelli, Alessandro. Universidade Estadual de Campinas; BrasilFil: Marsola, Julio. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Langer, Max. Universidade de Sao Paulo; Brasi

Paleoenvironments, taphonomy, and stable isotopic content of the terrestrial, fossil-vertebrate–bearing sequence of the El Disecado Member, El Gallo Formation, Upper Cretaceous, Baja California, México

The Late Campanian (Late Cretaceous), upper part of the El Disecado Member, El Gallo Formation, Baja California, México, preserves a rich fossil assemblage of microvertebrates and macrovertebrates, silicified logs, macroscopic plant remains, and pollen that was likely deposited as the distal part of a subaerial fan. The unit was episodic and high energy, with its salient features deriving from active river channels and sheet, debris-flow deposits. Landscape stability is indicated by the presence of compound paleosol horizons, containing Fe2O3 mottling in B horizons, cutans, and calcium carbonate concretions. All of these features indicate wet/dry cyclicity in subsurface horizons, likely attributable to such cyclicity in the climate. Drainage was largely to the north and to a lesser extent, the west; however, some current flow to the south and east is preserved which, in conjunction with the proximal location of marginal marine deposits, suggest the influence of tides in this setting. The fossil vertebrates preserved in this part of the El Disecado Member are almost exclusively allochthonous, preserved as disarticulated isolated clasts in hydraulic equivalence in the braided fluvial system. A relatively diverse microvertebrate assemblage is preserved, the largest components of which are first, dinosaurs, and second, turtles. Non-tetrapod fossils are relatively uncommon, perhaps reflecting an absence of permanent standing water in this depositional setting. Here we report a high-precision U-Pb date of 74.706 + 0.028 Ma (2σ internal uncertainty), obtained from zircons in an airfall tuff. The tuff is located low within the sequence studied; therefore, most of the sedimentology and fossils reported here are slightly younger. This date, which improves upon previously published 40Ar/39Ar geochronology, ultimately allows for comparison of these El Gallo faunas and environments with coeval ones globally. Primary stable isotopic nodules associated with roots in the paleosols of the terrestrial portion of the El Disecado Member are compared with ratios from similar sources from coeval northern and eastern localities in North America. Distinctive latitudinal gradients are observed in both δ13C and δ18O, reflecting the unique southern and western, coastal geographic position of this locality. These differences are best explained by differences in the floras that populated the northern and eastern localities, relative to the southern and western floras reported here

A Late Cretaceous mammal from Brazil and the first radioisotopic age for the Bauru Group

In the last three decades, records of tribosphenidan mammals from India, continental Africa, Madagascar and South America have challenged the notion of a strictly Laurasian distribution of the group during the Cretaceous. Here, we describe a lower premolar from the Late Cretaceous Adamantina Formation, São Paulo State, Brazil. It differs from all known fossil mammals, except for a putative eutherian from the same geologic unity and Deccanolestes hislopi, from the Maastrichtian of India. The incompleteness of the material precludes narrowing down its taxonomic attribution further than Tribosphenida, but it is larger than most coeval mammals and shows a thin layer of parallel crystallite enamel. The new taxon helps filling two major gaps in the fossil record: the paucity of Mesozoic mammals in more northern parts of South America and of tribosphenidans in the Cretaceous of that continent. In addition, high-precision U-Pb geochronology provided a post-Turonian maximal age (≤87.8 Ma) for the type stratum, which is overlain by the dinosaur-bearing Marília Formation, constraining the age of the Adamantina Formation at the site to late Coniacian–late Maastrichtian. This represents the first radioisotopic age for the Bauru Group, a key stratigraphic unit for the study of Cretaceous tetrapods in Gondwana.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Preparing for disaster: a comparative analysis of education for critical infrastructure collapse

This article explores policy approaches to educating populations for potential critical infrastructure collapse in five different countries: the UK, the US, Germany, Japan and New Zealand. ‘Critical infrastructure’ is not always easy to define, and indeed is defined slightly differently across countries – it includes entities vital to life, such as utilities (water, energy), transportation systems and communications, and may also include social and cultural infrastructure. The article is a mapping exercise of different approaches to critical infrastructure protection and preparedness education by the five countries. The exercise facilitates a comparison of the countries and enables us to identify distinctive characteristics of each country’s approach. We argue that contrary to what most scholars of security have argued, these national approaches diverge greatly, suggesting that they are shaped more by internal politics and culture than by global approaches

The ‘state of exception’ and disaster education: a multilevel conceptual framework with implications for social justice

The term ‘state of exception’ has been used by Italian political theorist Giorgio Agamben to explain the ways in which emergencies, crises and disasters are used by governments to suspend legal processes. In this paper, we innovatively apply Agamben’s theory to the way in which countries prepare and educate the population for various types of emergencies. We focus on two main aspects of Agamben’s work: first, the paradoxical nature of the state of exception, as both a transient and a permanent part of governance. Second, it is a ‘liminal’ concept expressing the limits of law and where ‘law’ meets ‘not-law’. We consider the relationship between laws related to disasters and emergencies, and case studies of the ways in which three countries (England, Germany and Japan) educate their populations for crisis and disaster. In England, we consider how emergency powers have been orientated around the protection of the Critical National Infrastructure and how this has produced localised ‘states of exception’ and, relatedly, pedagogical anomalies. In Germany, we consider the way in which laws related to disaster and civil protection, and the nature of volunteering for civil protection, produce exceptional spaces for non-German bodies. In Japan, we consider the debate around the absence of emergency powers and relate this to Japanese non-exceptional disaster education for natural disasters. Applying Agamben’s work, we conclude by developing a new, multilevel empirical framework for analysing disaster education with implications for social justice

Mammals from the earliest Uintan (middle Eocene) Turtle Bluff Member, Bridger Formation, southwestern Wyoming, USA, Part 3: Marsupialia and a reevaluation of the Bridgerian-Uintan North American Land Mammal Age transition

This is the third and last of a series of reports that provide detailed descriptionsand taxonomic revisions of the fauna from the Turtle Bluff Member (TBM) of the middleEocene Bridger Formation of southwestern Wyoming. The TBM has been designatedas the stratotype section for biochron Ui1a (earliest Uintan) of the Uintan North Ameri-can Land Mammal age and here we document new faunal elements along with new U-Pb geochronologic and paleomagnetic data for the TBM. Prior to these reports,detailed systematic accounts of the taxa from the TBM were unavailable with theexception of one primate (Hemiacodon engardae). Here we document the occurrenceof the following didelphimorphian marsupials from the TBM: Herpetotherium knighti,Herpetotherium marsupium, Peradectes chesteri, and Peradectes californicus. New U-Pb dates of 47.31 ± 0.06 Ma and 46.94 ± 0.14 Ma from the TBM provide precise con-straints on the age of the fauna. These dates plus new paleomagnetic data further sup-port the existing evidence that the TBM Fauna and the boundary between theBridgerian and Uintan North American Land Mammal ages occurs within the lower partof Chron C21n of the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale. The only other fauna fromNorth America that can confidently be assigned to biochron Ui1a is the Basal TertiaryLocal Fauna from the Devil's Graveyard Formation of Texas. Revisions of the faunalcharacterizations of biochrons Ui1a (earliest Uintan) and Ui1b (early Uintan) of the Uin-tan North America Land Mammal age are proposed to further clarify their difference

Therapeutic Potential of an Endolysin Derived from Kayvirus S25-3 for Staphylococcal Impetigo

Impetigo is a contagious skin infection predominantly caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Decontamination of S. aureus from the skin is becoming more difficult because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains. Bacteriophage endolysins are less likely to invoke resistance and can eliminate the target bacteria without disturbance of the normal microflora. In this study, we investigated the therapeutic potential of a recombinant endolysin derived from kayvirus S25-3 against staphylococcal impetigo in an experimental setting. First, the recombinant S25-3 endolysin required an incubation period of over 15 minutes to exhibit efficient bactericidal effects against S. aureus. Second, topical application of the recombinant S25-3 endolysin decreased the number of intraepidermal staphylococci and the size of pustules in an experimental mouse model of impetigo. Third, treatment with the recombinant S25-3 endolysin increased the diversity of the skin microbiota in the same mice. Finally, we revealed the genus-specific bacteriolytic effect of recombinant S25-3 endolysin against staphylococci, particularly S. aureus, among human skin commensal bacteria. Therefore, topical treatment with recombinant S25-3 endolysin can be a promising disease management procedure for staphylococcal impetigo by efficient bacteriolysis of S. aureus while improving the cutaneous bacterial microflora