Memoirs

Memoirs are individual monographs on a single subject, such as a regional survey or comprehensive treatment of an entire group. If you are interested in purchasing publications, please contact Ben Williams at ben.williams@vmnh.virginia.gov. Select publications will be available for purchase online soon.

Memoir Number 1

Evolution of Environments and Hominidae in the African Western Rift Valley
Edited by Noel T. Boaz
$15.00

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.

Memoir Number 2

Molluscan Biostratigraphy of the Miocene, Middle Atlantic Coastal Plain of North America
Lauck W. Ward
Out of Print

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.

Memoir Number 3

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)
Lauck W. Ward and Norman L. Gilinsky
Out of Print

Mollusks of the upper Pliocene Chowan River Formation of southeastern Virginia and eastern North Carolina are compared with mollusks from adjoining older and younger units by traditional biostratigraphic methods and statistical Q-and R-mode cluster analysis.

Memoir Number 4

The Megaflora from the Quantico Locality (Upper Albian), Lower Cretaceous Potomac Group of Virginia
Garland R. Upchurch, Jr., Peter R. Crane, and Andrew N. Drinnan
$13.50

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.
This volume formally describes a mid-Cretaceous (Upper Albian) megaflora from the Quantico locality in Virginia. The Quantico flora contains horsetails, cycadophytes, conifers, and flowering plants that belong to a mixture of extinct and extant families. Three new species are described in this publication.

Memoir Number 5

A Synopsis of the North American Centipede of the Order Scolopendromorpha (Chilopodoa)
Rowland M. Shelley
Out of Print

A synopsis of the scolopendromorph centipede fauna of North America, comprising three families, eight genera, and 21 species. Keys, diagnoses, and anatomical illustrations facilitate determinations; detailed locality records are supplemented by distribution maps to depict occurrences.

Memoir Number 6

Systematics of the Freshwater Amphipod Genus Crangonyx (Crangonyctidae) in North America
Jun Zhang and John R. Holsinger
Out of Print

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 Holartctic 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. Structual details are copiously illustrated, loacity records obtained from 2,240 collections are represented on distribution maps, and computer-generated phylogenetic trees portray possible evolutionary tracks with Crangonyx.

Memoir Number 7

Re-description and Revision of Smitts 'Floridan Brozoa' in the Collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Judith E. Winston
$22.50

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 accommodate the new taxa in the modern classification of this group. All species are illustrated by large, detailed SEM images.

Memoir Number 8

A New Species of Squalodon (Mammalia, Cetacea) from the Middle Miocene of Virginia
Alton C. Dooley, Jr.
$15.00

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.

Memoir Number 9

Stratigraphy of the Calvert, Choptank, and St. Marys Formations (Miocene) in the Chesapeake Bay Area, Maryland and Virginia
Lauck W. Ward and George W. Andrews
$30.00

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. We reject the terms Popes Creek Sand and Dunkirk because they are on units included in the Fairhaven Member by Shattuck (1904). We suggest discarding the terms Calvert Beach Member. Bed 14/15/16 is included in the Plum Point Member of the Calvert Formation. The Conoy Member is assigned to the basal St. Marys Formation and two new members, the Little Cove Point and the Windmill Point, are formally introduced as subdivisions of the St. Marys.

Memoir Number 10

Systematic Revision of the Northern Short-tailed Shrew, Blarina brevicauda (Say)
Wm. David Webster, Nancy D. Moncrief, Jerry R. Choate, and Hugh H. Genoways
Download Memoir #10 for Free

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.

Memoir Number 11

The Marine Bryozoans of the Northeast Coast of the United States: Maine to Virginia
Dr. Judith E. Winston and Dr. Peter J. Hayward
$26.25

This guidebook describes the most common species of intertidal (the area that is above water at low tide and under water at high tide) and subtidal (below the low-tide mark but still shallow and close to shore) bryozoans of the northeast coast of North America from Maine to Virginia. Bryozoans are colonial invertebrate animals that live in water and filter food particles out of the water using retractable tentacles.

This is the only guide to the identification and distribution of bryozoans of this region published in the last 100 years. This publication includes 12 species that are either newly described or are given new names, along with one new genus that is described and discussed.