Geobiology, Lecture Notes 1
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GTL PI Meeting 2003 Presentation Nealson
USCUSC Geobiology Astrobiology Ken Nealson Wrigley Professor of Geobiology USC SHEWANELLA and Genomes to Life !! THE FUTURE!! WHERE ARE WE GOING? HOW WILL WE GET THERE? WHAT ARE THE CHALLENGES AND TRAPS? USCUSC Geobiology Astrobiology Genomes to Life: Shewanella and the future !! Genomes & Genomics: For sake of this discussion, I include Genome composition, gene expression, & metabolism Genomics Physiology Ecophsyiology Ecology Predictable Community Behavior Successful Manipulation of Natural Communities USCUSC Geobiology Astrobiology Shewanella in the future: Short Term: Genomic/Proteomic/Metabolic Connections Linkage of physiology to genomic information Mid Term: Ecophysiology Questions regarding regulation of MR-1 How does the cell”work”? Linkage of laboratory to microcosm and field data Long Term: Community structure and activities Genetic variability and use of genomic approaches Predictable community ecology The “old view” of Shewanella oneidensis Gamma Purple proteobacteria MR-1; when Isolated was One of ~10, Now >50 ! USCUSC Geobiology Astrobiology The “new view” of Shewanella Now MR-1 is again one of 1, although a strain of S. benthica is almost finished by a Japanese group (JAMSTEC) USCUSC Geobiology Astrobiology Excitement of the “new view”: May be able to use this information to dissect specific aspects of both ecology and evolution: Ecology: Involved in many different redox processes Aerobic and anaerobic niches Metal cycling connected with carbon cycling Potential for dealing with many toxic metals and radionuclides Can we understand Shewanella well enough to begin to use it? what it does how it does it how it regulates how it interacts with other organisms All of this well enough to make predictions that work. -
Foundations of Complex Life: Evolution, Preservation and Detection on Earth and Beyond
National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Astrobiology Institute Annual Science Report 2016 Team Report: Foundations of Complex Life: Evolution, Preservation and Detection on Earth and Beyond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Foundations of Complex Life Evolution, Preservation and Detection on Earth and Beyond Lead Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Team Overview Foundations of Complex Life is a research project investigating the early evolution and preservation of complex life on Earth. We seek insight into the early evolution and preservation of complex life by refining our ability to identify evidence of environmental and biological change in the late Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic eras. Better understanding how signatures of life and environment are preserved will guide how and where to look for evidence for life elsewhere in the universe—directly supporting the Curiosity mission on Mars and helping set strategic goals for future explorations of the Solar System and studies of the early Earth. Our Team pursues these questions under five themes: I. The earliest history of animals: We use methods from molecular biology, experimental taphonomy, and paleontology to explore what caused the early divergence of animals. Principal Investigator: II. Paleontology, sedimentology, and geochemistry: We track the origin of complex Roger Summons protists and animals from their biologically simple origins by documenting the stratigraphy, isotopic records, and microfossil assemblages of well-preserved rock successions from 1200 to 650 million years ago. III. A preservation-induced oxygen tipping point: We investigate how changes in the preservation of organic carbon may have driven the Neoproterozoic oxygenation of the oceans coincident with the appearance of complex life. -
Thoughts in Geobiology
Journal of Geology and Mining Research Vol. 1(8), October, 2009 Available online http://www.academicjournals.org/jgmr ISSN 2006 – 9766 © 2009 Academic Journals Editorial Thoughts in Geobiology One of the possible ways to make connection between geologists and biologists is through studying subjects related to the newly established trend “Geobiology”. In the year 1972, Sylvester-Bradley stated that the Earth sciences include not only geology, but the hybrid-sciences geophysics, geochemistry and geobiology, of which the most complex and least rigorous is geobiology. Kump (2008) simply defined geobiology as the field that has recently energized the life and Earth sciences as geologists and biologists bring new tools to collaborations addressing fundamental problems that transcend the disciplines. The book edited by Xiao and Kaufman (2007) includes a set of multidisciplinary reviews on the Neoproterozoic fossil record (animals, algae, acritarchs, protists, and trace fossils), evolutionary developmental biology of animals, molecular clock estimates of phylogenetic divergences, and Neoproterozoic chemostratigraphy and sedimentary geology. The editors of this book believe that these topics are of continuing interest to geoscientists and bioscientists who are intrigued by the deep history of the Earth and its inhabitants. Yildirim et al. (2008) believe that microbial systems in extreme environments and in the deep biosphere may be analogous to potential life on other planetary bodies and hence may be used to investigate the possibilities of extraterrestrial life. I would add that astrobiologists are working on this point through studying materials from Mars. Through geobiology we search for origins and evolution of life, atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere, reasons of mass extinctions, interactions between microbes and minerals, global changes, and other subjects of interest. -
Rowan C. Martindale Curriculum Vitae Associate Professor (Invertebrate Paleontology) at the University of Texas at Austin
ROWAN C. MARTINDALE CURRICULUM VITAE ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR (INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY) AT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN Department of Geological Sciences E-mail: [email protected] Jackson School of Geosciences Website: www.jsg.utexas.edu/martindale/ 2275 Speedway Stop C9000 Orchid ID: 0000-0003-2681-083X Austin, TX 78712-1722 Phone: 512-475-6439 Office: JSG 3.216A RESEARCH INTERESTS The overarching theme of my work is the connection between Earth and life through time, more precisely, understanding ancient (Mesozoic and Cenozoic) ocean ecosystems and the evolutionary and environmental events that shaped them. My research is interdisciplinary, (paleontology, sedimentology, biology, geochemistry, and oceanography) and focuses on: extinctions and carbon cycle perturbation events (e.g., Oceanic Anoxic Events, acidification events); marine (paleo)ecology and reef systems; the evolution of reef builders (e.g., coral photosymbiosis); and exceptionally preserved fossil deposits (Lagerstätten). ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS Associate Professor, University of Texas at Austin September 2020 to Present Assistant Professor, University of Texas at Austin August 2014 to August 2020 Postdoctoral Researcher, Harvard University August 2012 to July 2014 Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; Mentor: Dr. Andrew H. Knoll. EDUCATION Doctorate, University of Southern California 2007 to 2012 Dissertation: “Paleoecology of Upper Triassic reef ecosystems and their demise at the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, a potential ocean acidification event”. Advisor: Dr. David J. Bottjer, degree conferred August 7th, 2012. Bachelor of Science Honors Degree, Queen’s University 2003 to 2007 Geology major with a general concentration in Biology (Geological Sciences Medal Winner). AWARDS AND RECOGNITION Awards During Tenure at UT Austin • 2019 National Science Foundation CAREER Award: Awarded to candidates who are judged to have the potential to serve as academic role models in research and education. -
Some Philosophical Questions About Paleontology and Their Practica1 Consequences
ACTA GEOLOGICA HISPANICA. Concept and method in Paleontology. 16 (1981) nos 1-2, pags. 7-23 Some philosophical questions about paleontology and their practica1 consequences by Miquel DE RENZI Depto. de Geología, Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de Valencia. Burjassot (Valencia). This papcr attempts to objectively discuss the actual state ofpaleontology. The En aquest treball s'ha intentat fer un balanc d'alguns aspectes de I'estat de la progress of this science stood still somewhat during the latter part of the last paleontologia. La historia de la paleontologia mostra un estancarnent a les century which caused it to develop apart from the biological sciences. an area to darreries del segle passac aquest estancament va Fer que la nostra ciencia s'anes which it is naturally tied. As aconsequence, this bruought a long-term stagnation, allunyant cada cop mes de I'area de les ciencies bii~logiques,amb les qualsestava because biology, dunng this century, has made great progress and paleontology lligada naturalment AixO va portar, com a conseqüencia, un important has not During the last 20 years paleontology as a science hasrecuperatedsome endarreriment, car la biologia, durant aquest segle, ha donat un gran pas of this loss, but we as scientists need to be careful in various aspects of its endavant, mentre que aquest no ha estat el cas de lapaleontologia Al nostre pais development -i possiblement a molts d'altres- la paleontologia es, fonamentalment, un estn per datar estrats. Tanmateix, un mal estri, car la datació es basadaen les especies fossils i la seva determinació es fonamenta en el ccncepte d'especie biolbgica; els fossils pero en moltes ocasions, són utilitzats mes aviat com si fossin segells o monedes. -
SVP's Letter to Editors of Journals and Publishers on Burmese Amber And
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 7918 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 300 McLean, VA 22102 USA Phone: (301) 634-7024 Email: [email protected] Web: www.vertpaleo.org FEIN: 06-0906643 April 21, 2020 Subject: Fossils from conflict zones and reproducibility of fossil-based scientific data Dear Editors, We are writing you today to promote the awareness of a couple of troubling matters in our scientific discipline, paleontology, because we value your professional academic publication as an important ‘gatekeeper’ to set high ethical standards in our scientific field. We represent the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP: http://vertpaleo.org/), a non-profit international scientific organization with over 2,000 researchers, educators, students, and enthusiasts, to advance the science of vertebrate palaeontology and to support and encourage the discovery, preservation, and protection of vertebrate fossils, fossil sites, and their geological and paleontological contexts. The first troubling matter concerns situations surrounding fossils in and from conflict zones. One particularly alarming example is with the so-called ‘Burmese amber’ that contains exquisitely well-preserved fossils trapped in 100-million-year-old (Cretaceous) tree sap from Myanmar. They include insects and plants, as well as various vertebrates such as lizards, snakes, birds, and dinosaurs, which have provided a wealth of biological information about the ‘dinosaur-era’ terrestrial ecosystem. Yet, the scientific value of these specimens comes at a cost (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/11/science/amber-myanmar-paleontologists.html). Where Burmese amber is mined in hazardous conditions, smuggled out of the country, and sold as gemstones, the most disheartening issue is that the recent surge of exciting scientific discoveries, particularly involving vertebrate fossils, has in part fueled the commercial trading of amber. -
MARTIAN PALEOMAGNETISM with the SQUID MICROSCOPE Thesis
MARTIAN PALEOMAGNETISM WITH THE SQUID MICROSCOPE Thesis by Benjamin Paul Weiss In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Pasadena, California 2003 (Defended January 28, 2003) ii 2003 Benjamin Paul Weiss All Rights Reserved iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are of course many people who need to be thanked for making this thesis possible, but by far the most important of these is Joe Kirschvink. Joe couldn’t have had me in his lab more than a week before trusting me and a fellow undergraduate—the two of us new to geology, unproven and truly nobodies—to stay up all night slicing up the martian meteorite ALH84001. All night long we kept laughing out of excitement and disbelief as we played with not only an invaluable rock from Mars but the oldest known rock from any planet! This ability to inspire through his trust is Joe’s genius as a teacher. Joe also taught me how to be at once fearlessly creative and within the bounds of rigor. To me, it is the stories—of the rocks, of the events of the past, and of how we learn about them—that were what attracted me to planetary science in the first place. Trucking around the world with Joe (through South Africa, Swaziland, Mexico, Australia, Japan…), I saw some really strange rocks and places, which had even stranger stories to tell. Strange, at least, when told through Joe as their interpreter (Joe says I am a Martian that has just recently taken over a human body but hasn’t quite learned how to use all of the equipment; if this is true, then where did he come from?). -
Dornbos.Web.CV
Stephen Quinn Dornbos Associate Professor and Department Chair Department of Geosciences University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Milwaukee, WI 53201-0413 Phone: (414) 229-6630 Fax: (414) 229-5452 E-mail: [email protected] http://uwm.edu/geosciences/people/dornbos-stephen/ EDUCATION 2003 Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. 1999 M.S., Geological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA. 1997 B.A., Geology, The College of Wooster, Wooster, OH. ADDITIONAL EDUCATION 2002 University of Washington, Summer Marine Invertebrate Zoology Course, Friday Harbor Laboratories. 1997 Louisiana State University, Summer Field Geology Course. PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE 2017-Present Department Chair, Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 2010-Present Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 2004-2010 Assistant Professor, Department of Geosciences, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. 2012-Present Adjunct Curator, Geology Department, Milwaukee Public Museum. 2004-Present Curator, Greene Geological Museum, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee. 2003-2004 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California. 2002 Research Assistant, Invertebrate Paleontology Department, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. EDITORIAL POSITIONS 2017-Present Editorial Board, Heliyon. 2015-Present Board of Directors, Coquina Press. 2014-Present Commentaries Editor, Palaeontologia Electronica. 2006-Present Associate Editor, Palaeontologia Electronica. Curriculum Vitae – Stephen Q. Dornbos 2 RESEARCH INTERESTS 1) Evolution and preservation of early life on Earth. 2) Evolutionary paleoecology of early animals during the Cambrian radiation. 3) Geobiology of microbial structures in Precambrian–Cambrian sedimentary rocks. 4) Cambrian reef evolution, paleoecology, and extinction. 5) Exceptional fossil preservation. HONORS AND AWARDS 2013 UWM Authors Recognition Ceremony. 2011 Full Member, Sigma Xi. -
A Concise Dictionary of Paleontology Second Edition
springer.com Life Sciences : Evolutionary Biology Carlton, Robert L. A Concise Dictionary of Paleontology Second Edition Presents a unique English language dictionary of paleontological terms, taxa, localities, and concepts Focuses on the most common orders, genera, and species, paying careful attention to overall historical significance in terms of turning points such as mass extinctions Written for students, libraries, museums, and general readers of scientific literature This new and significantly updated authored dictionary is a unique glossary of paleontological Springer terms, taxa, localities, and concepts. It focuses primarily on identifying the most significant 2nd ed. 2019, XII, 469 p. groups of fossil animals and plants in relation to their evolution and phylogeny. It also focuses 2nd on mass extinctions, on taxa that are problematic in some significant way, on the principal edition fossil-Lagerstätten of the world, and on historical turning points marked by index fossils. Although there are many current resources on the subject, none contains an accurate representation of the paleontological lexicon. Although well aware that the fast-changing field Printed book of paleontology will always defy any attempt at complete description, the author has attempted Hardcover to provide an accurate and comprehensive set of about 4,000 entries that will be useful to professionals as well as to general readers of scientific literature without a background in Printed book paleontology. Hardcover ISBN 978-3-030-25585-5 £ 149,99 | CHF 200,50 | 169,99 € | Order online at springer.com/booksellers Springer Nature Customer Service Center GmbH 186,99 € (A) | 181,89 € (D) Customer Service Available Tiergartenstrasse 15-17 Discount group 69121 Heidelberg Standard (0) Germany T: +49 (0)6221 345-4301 Product category [email protected] Dictionary Other renditions Softcover ISBN 978-3-030-25588-6 Softcover ISBN 978-3-030-25587-9 Prices and other details are subject to change without notice. -
The Greatest Challenge to 21St Century Paleontology: When Commercialization of Fossils Threatens the Science
Palaeontologia Electronica http://palaeo-electronica.org The greatest challenge to 21st century paleontology: When commercialization of fossils threatens the science Kenshu Shimada, Philip J. Currie, Eric Scott, and Stuart S. Sumida As we proceed into the 21st century, the sci- responses to geological and climatic factors. Pale- ence of paleontology has achieved a remarkable ontology presently enjoys a new “Golden Age,” prominence and popularity, providing increasingly progressing by leaps while also serving, as always, detailed perspective on critical biological and geo- to inspire young minds to explore science and the logical processes. Spectacular new discoveries natural world. excite the imagination and spur new investigations, Yet at the outset of the millennium, three inter- while more abundant fossils studied using new connected, troubling challenges confront paleontol- techniques enable more precise interpretations of ogists: 1) a shrinking job market, 2) diminishing diversity, variation, changes through time, and funding sources, and 3) heightened commercial- Editor’s note: The commercial collection and sale of fossils, as well as the still developing regulations involving collection of fossils on public lands, have emerged as one of the most contentious issues in pale- ontology. These issues pit not only professional paleontologists and commercial collectors against each other, but have produced rifts within the paleontological community. Here Shimada and his co-authors vig- orously present a position supported by many vertebrate paleontologists. I repeat a call in an earlier com- mentary (Plotnick, 2011; palaeo-electronica.org/2011_1/commentary/mainstream.htm) for additional contributions that would discuss these issues that are so crucial to our field. Please send directly to Roy E. -
Nanostructure of Biogenic Versus Abiogenic Calcium Carbonate Crystals
Nanostructure of biogenic versus abiogenic calcium carbonate crystals JAROSŁAW STOLARSKI and MACIEJ MAZUR Stolarski, J. and Mazur, M. 2005. Nanostructure of biogenic versus abiogenic calcium carbonate crystals. Acta Palae− ontologica Polonica 50 (4): 847–865. The mineral phase of the aragonite skeletal fibers of extant scleractinians (Favia, Goniastrea) examined with Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) consists entirely of grains ca. 50–100 nm in diameter separated from each other by spaces of a few nanometers. A similar pattern of nanograin arrangement was observed in basal calcite skeleton of extant calcareous sponges (Petrobiona) and aragonitic extant stylasterid coralla (Adelopora). Aragonite fibers of the fossil scleractinians: Neogene Paracyathus (Korytnica, Poland), Cretaceous Rennensismilia (Gosau, Austria), Trochocyathus (Black Hills, South Dakota, USA), Jurassic Isastraea (Ostromice, Poland), and unidentified Triassic tropiastraeid (Alpe di Specie, It− aly) are also nanogranular, though boundaries between individual grains occasionally are not well resolved. On the other hand, in diagenetically altered coralla (fibrous skeleton beside aragonite bears distinct calcite signals) of the Triassic cor− als from Alakir Cay, Turkey (Pachysolenia), a typical nanogranular pattern is not recognizable. Also aragonite crystals produced synthetically in sterile environment did not exhibit a nanogranular pattern. Unexpectedly, nanograins were rec− ognized in some crystals of sparry calcite regarded as abiotically precipitated. Our findings support the idea that nanogranular organization of calcium carbonate fibers is not, per se, evidence of their biogenic versus abiogenic origin or their aragonitic versus calcitic composition but rather, a feature of CaCO3 formed in an aqueous solution in the presence of organic molecules that control nanograin formation. Consistent orientation of crystalographic axes of polycrystalline skeletal fibers in extant or fossil coralla, suggests that nanograins are monocrystalline and crystallographically ordered (at least after deposition). -
Tanja Bosak Was Born in Croatia and Graduated from the Zagreb University with a Degree in Geophysics
Tanja Bosak was born in Croatia and graduated from the Zagreb University with a degree in Geophysics. After a summer of research at JPL, she moved to the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, where she studied signatures of microbial processes in ancient sedimentary rocks and earned a Ph.D. in Geobiology. She spent two years at Harvard as a Microbial Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow, joined the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT in 2007 and is now a Professor of Geobiology and the group leader of the Program in Geology, Geochemistry and Geobiology. Tanja’s work integrates microbiology, sedimentology and stable isotope geochemistry into experimental geobiology to ask how microbial processes leave chemical, mineral and morphological signals in sedimentary rocks. Her lab uses this approach to explore modern biogeochemical and sedimentological processes, interpret the co-evolution of life and the environment during the first 80% of Earth history and look for signs of past life on Mars. For this work, and her work with graduate students and undergraduates, Bosak received the Subaru Outstanding Woman in Science award by the Geological Society of America (2007), the Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (2011), the Edgerton Award for young faculty at MIT (2012), the Undergraduate Research Opportunities for Undergraduates Mentor of the Year award by MIT (2012) and the Award for Outstanding Contributions and Dedication to Geobiology and Geomicrobiology from The Geobiology and Geomicrobiology Division of The Geological Society of America. Bosak is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union (2011), the American Academy of Microbiology (2021), and a subject editor for Geobiology, Frontiers of Microbiology and Geochemical Perspectives Letters.