Liam McNulty
Research Mentor(s): Lucas Weaver
Mentor Department: Museum of Paleontology & Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences
Authors: Liam McNulty, Lucas Weaver, Sara Zain, Samantha Goldstein
Session: Session 4 (1:00pm – 1:50pm)
Presentation Type: Poster 93
Abstract
Extensive research by paleontologists on the taxonomic diversity of the Late Cretaceous period (100-66 Ma (million years ago)) leading up to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary (66 Ma) has mostly come from two North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs): the Judithian (mid-late Campanian, 77 – 74 Ma) and the Lancian (late Maastrichtian, 69 – 66 Ma), yet the intervening time period remains poorly characterized due to changing geographical landscapes and subsequent scarcity of fossil evidence between 74 and 69 Ma – a transitional interval known as the Edmontonian. This study recovered early Maastrichtian sediment from newly identified microfossil localities named “Cale’s Clam Cache†and “Josephine’s Rump,†located in the Meeteetse Formation of the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming. Sediment was bulk collected and screen washed to isolate fossiliferous sediment, and all identified vertebrate microfossils were isolated and catalogued by taxon. R language and software was used to compute faunal diversity metrics. These findings were then compared to previous records of vertebrate microfossils of the Lancian and Judithian NALMAs. With continued research efforts, this study will provide a window into one of the first robust analyses of vertebrate paleocommunities of the transitional Edmontonian interval, helping to bridge the gap in our understanding of vertebrate evolution leading up to the K-Pg mass extinction.
