VMNH Memoirs
Evolution of Environments and Hominidae in the African Western Rift Valley Edited by Noel T. Boaz
An innovative multidisciplinary exploration of an important paleoanthropological site in the Rift Valley of eastern Zaire, extending in age from over two million years ago to the present. Members of the Semliki Research Expedition present and discuss the geology, paleoecology, paleontology, and archaeology of the Upper Semliki and nearby northern shore of Lake Rutanzige. Molluscan Biostratiraphy of the Miocene, Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain of North America Written by Lauck W. Ward
In spite of over one hundred years of attention to the Miocene geology of the Coastal Plain of the middle Atlantic states of North America, until the publication of this volume the area lacked a comprehensive biostratigraphic framework. In this volume, biostratigraphic concepts are reviewed and a zonation based on mollusks is proposed that covers the relatively complete Miocene section in Maryland, Virginia, and North Carolina. A series of eight interval-zones are described, based on first-occurrence data of stratigraphically important mollusks, and the entire time sequence of the Miocene is represented. The mollusks used in the study are treated systematically, and their nomenclatural histories as well as their geographic and stratigraphic ranges discussed. Thirty-five new species or subspecies and seven new genera are named and described. This well-illustrated monograph on the Miocene strata and fauna will be an essential source for scientists, educators, students, and amateurs. The twenty-six excellent fossil plates and the thirty-two graphically depicted outcrop sections make the volume valuable both in the laboratory and field. This refinement of the molluscan systematics clears up much of the confusion in nomenclature of Maryland and Virginia fossils. Molluscan Assemblages of the Chowan River Formation, Part A Written by Lauck W. Ward and Norman L. Gilinsky
Biostratigraphic Analysis of the Chowan River Formation (Upper Pliocene) and Adjoining Units, the Moore House Member of the Yorktown Formation (Upper Pliocene) and the James City Formation (Lower Pleistocene). The Megaflora from the Quantico Locality (Upper Albian), Lower Cretaceous Potomac Group of Virginia Written by Garland R. Upchurch, Jr., Peter R. Crane, and Andrew N. Drinnan
The mid-Cretaceous Potomac Group of Virginia and Maryland preserves the best record of early flowering plant fossils in North America. The Potomac Group documents some of the earliest appearances of modern orders and families and illustrates the transition from an archaic Mesophytic flora dominated by ferns, cyadophytes, and conifers to a modern Cenophytic flora dominated by flowering plants and conifers. A Synopsis of the North American Centipede of the Order Scolopendromorpha (Chilopodoa) *OUT OF PRINT Written by Dr. Rowland Shelley, Curator of Terrestrial Invertebrates, North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences
The order Scolopendromorpha contains the largest members of the class Chilopoda, with individuals of the aptly named Scolopendra gigantea L. attaining a length of over 12 inches (300 mm). Essentially worldwide in occurrence but most diverse and abundant in tropical and semiarid regions, scolopendromorphs are often the dominant invertebrate predators in terrestrial ecosystems. Endowed with powerful fangs and a predisposition to bite on little provocation, the larger members are often implicated in painful encounters with humans, and in parts of the tropics constitute a public health problem of some importance. A Synopsis of the North American Centipedes of the Order Scolopendromorpha (Chilopoda) is the first comprehensive treatment of the North American fauna. In it, 27 species are recognized and distributed among nine genera and three families, and one generic and 23 species names are newly relegated to synonymies. Thousands of preserved specimens have been examined, including extant types of most newly proposed synonyms. The author has personally encountered the majority of our species alive under environmental conditions on field expeditions across the continental United States and Canada. Keys are provided to taxa at all levels, and taxonomic characters are fully illustrated. With this reference at hand, any North American naturalist working with scolopendromorphs should experience little difficulty arriving at reliable determinations. Detailed distribution maps, based on both reliable literature records and collection localities of preserved samples, provide precise images of the ranges as currently known. Ecological and ethological information is summarized for species where such exists. An extensive bibliography of 233 titles represents virtually the entire literature base relevant to the continental fauna. Dr. Rowland Shelley is Curator of Terrestrial Invertebrates at the North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences. He has authored over 160 scientific papers on the classification and distribution of millipeds, centipedes, scorpions, and leeches, in which over 180 new species and subspecies are described. Systematics of the freshwater amphipod genus Crangonyx (Crangonyctidae) in North America Written by Jun Zhang and John R. Holsinger
Freshwater amphipods abound in a wide range of habitats: from icy springs and cave streams to rivers, lakes and swamps, frequently in vast numbers as both primary consumers and a food resource for many larger predators. Species of the Holarctic genus Crangonyx exemplify this condition, as important elements in many aquatic ecosystems, and must be factored into studies of such communities and in the formulation of environmental management protocols. This monographic revision, based on the examination of over 23,000 specimens, treats the classification, phylogeny, and distribution of the 42 North American species of this genus, 24 of them described as new. Structural details are copiously illustrated, locality records obtained from 2240 collections are represented on distribution maps, and computer-generated phylogenetic trees portray possible evolutionary tracks within Crangonyx. Such a comprehensive treatment renders the book indispensable to all students of the class Amphipoda and anyone investigating Nearctic freshwater ecosystems. It is the latest contribution from ongoing research on amphipods conducted by the second author, Professor of Biological Sciences at Old Dominion University, for over four decades.
Written by Judith E. Winston
This monograph describes and updates the nomenclature and classification of the "Floridan Bryozoa" collected in 1862-69 by L. F. de Pourtal's and named by F. A. Smitt in 1872-73. This material, now in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, includes specimens of 68 species, upon which (in addition to those recognized by Smitt), are based 15 new species and four new genera. Four new families are also proposed to accomodate the new taxa in the modern classification of this group. All species are illustrated by large, detailed SEM images.
A New Species of Squalodon (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Middle Miocene of Virginia Written by Alton C. Dooley, Jr.
The large squalodontid whale Squalodon whitmorei is described from a nearly complete skeleton from the Calvert Formation (Middle Miocene), eastern Virginia. The technical description of skeletal elements is preceded by a review of relevant taxonomic literature, and the conclusion drawn that the nominal genus Kellogia (Mchedlidze 1976) is a junior subjective synonym of Squalodon. The status of other names proposed for apparently related whales is also discussed; S. whitmorei appears to be most closely allied to S. barbarus (Mchedlidze) from Oligocene strata in Azerbaidzhan. Written by Lauck W. Ward and George W. Andrews
Excellent fossiliferous exposures of the Calvert, Choptank, and St. Marys Formations occur along the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries in Maryland and Virginia. Stratigraphic cross-sections were constructed along the Chesapeake Bay and Patuxent, Potomac, and Rappahannock Rivers which allow correlation of the various beds from the Chesapeake Bay to the updip sections near Richmond, Virginia. The nomenclatural history of the Calvert, Choptank, and St. Marys and their members and beds is discussed and the units are redescribed. Stratotype localities are selected and correlation and age of the beds is documented. Systematic Revision of the Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say) Wm. David Webster, Nancy D. Moncrief, Jerry R. Choate, and Hugh H. Genoways
Short-tailed shrews, genus Blarina, are common inhabitants of a variety of terrestrial habitats in most of eastern North America. Of the 4 species currently recognized, the northern short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say, 1823), is the most widely distributed, occurring from southern Canada southward to the central Great Plains and the Appalachian Mountains into Georgia and Alabama and along the East Coast as far south as southeastern North Carolina. It has been more than 65 years since geographic variation within this species has been studied. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to examine geographic variation in Blarina brevicauda and to revise its intraspecific taxonomy as needed. A total of 12,390 Holocene specimens of Blarina brevicauda from throughout the geographic range of the species and the fossil material of Blarina fossilis, B. ozarkensis, and B. simplicidens were examined during the course of this study. Nine cranial and mandibular measurements were taken from 2,736 Holocene specimens, which were grouped into 114 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) for statistical analysis. We used a single classification ANOVA to test for significant differences among means of OTUs and a principal component analysis (PCA) to extract eigenvectors and generate a 2-dimensional plot of OTUs. Our analysis demonstrates that B. brevicauda consists of 7 well-defined subspecies. Two subspecies, the large-bodied B. b. brevicauda and the medium-sized B. b. talpoides, occupy almost the entire geographic range of the species, with restricted gene flow between these 2 subspecies where their geographic ranges abut in the vicinity of the Mississippi River and its valley. The other 5 subspecies occupy small to modest geographic ranges at the periphery of the range of the species and in isolated geographic areas—an undescribed subspecies on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee and adjacent Kentucky, B. b. knoxjonesi along the southeastern coast of North Carolina, another undescribed subspecies on the southern two-thirds of the Delmarva Peninsula, B. b. aloga on Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket Island, and a third undescribed subspecies in the Kaw River Valley in northeastern Kansas. In each of these geographic areas, gene flow has been stopped or greatly restricted. We have chosen to recognize these 7 subspecies because we believe that each has begun to follow its own evolutionary path. These taxa are arranged in a geographic configuration that fits the pattern termed centrifugal speciation, or the development of small isolated peripheral and sometimes relictual populations as the parent taxon undergoes normal population expansion and contraction cycles. The fact that at least 3 of these peripheral populations are now partially in contact with the parental populations and have not been swamped out genetically indicates to us that they are adapting to their local conditions and are able to maintain their genetic identities. Our morphological data and mitochondrial DNA analyses by other workers indicate that these peripheral subspecies, with the possible exception of the 1 along the Kaw River valley, are derived from B. b. talpoides. These data also indicate that B. b. brevicauda and B. b. talpoides are semi-species. |
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