Eurypterids are a diverse group of arthropods with a wide range of body morphologies and lifestyles. They are poorly understood because their fossils are rare. However, they are quite prevalent in the Appalachian Basin, typically interpreted to be a hypersaline environment. This paper documents the temporal and geographic distribution of eurypterids in the Appalachian Basin in order to address ...

Taking an experimental approach to paleoecology, we evaluated the prey portion of Van Valen’s Red Queen hypothesis by retrieving diapausing eggs from lake sediments for laboratory tests of evolutionary responses. The sediments consisted of core samples from Portage Lake (Michigan), which were dated by a combination of varve counts and radioisotope (137Cs and 210Pb) techniques. The sedimentary r...

Azhdarchid pterosaurs were among the most widespread and successful of pterosaur clades, but their paleoecology remains controversial. Morphological features common to all azhdarchids include a long, shallow rostrum; elongate, cylindrical cervical vertebrae that formed a long and unusually inflexible neck; and proportionally short wings with an abbreviated fourth phalanx. While azhdarchids have...

Empty mollusk shells may act as colonization surfaces for sclerobionts depending on the physical, chemical, and biological attributes of the shells. However, the main factors that can affect the establishment of an organism on hard substrates and the colonization patterns on modern and time-averaged shells remain unclear. Using experimental and field approaches, we compared sclerobiont (i.e., b...