University of Tennessee, Knoxville TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange Masters Theses Graduate School 8-2013 Paleobiogeographical variation of Cretaceous Mecaster batnensis and Mecaster fourneli (Echinoidea: Spatangoida) Ryan Oliver Roney [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes Part of the Paleontology Commons Recommended Citation Roney, Ryan Oliver, "Paleobiogeographical variation of Cretaceous Mecaster batnensis and Mecaster fourneli (Echinoidea: Spatangoida). " Master's Thesis, University of Tennessee, 2013. https://trace.tennessee.edu/utk_gradthes/2448 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of TRACE: Tennessee Research and Creative Exchange. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To the Graduate Council: I am submitting herewith a thesis written by Ryan Oliver Roney entitled "Paleobiogeographical variation of Cretaceous Mecaster batnensis and Mecaster fourneli (Echinoidea: Spatangoida)." I have examined the final electronic copy of this thesis for form and content and recommend that it be accepted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree of Master of Science, with a major in Geology. Colin D. Sumrall, Major Professor We have read this thesis and recommend its acceptance: Michael L. McKinney, Burchard Carter Accepted for the Council: Carolyn R. Hodges Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School (Original signatures are on file with official studentecor r ds.) Paleobiogeographical variation of Cretaceous Mecaster batnensis and Mecaster fourneli (Echinoidea: Spatangoida) A Thesis Presented for the Master of Science Degree The University of Tennessee, Knoxville Ryan Oliver Roney August 2013 Copyright © 2013 by Ryan Oliver Roney All rights reserved. ii For my sister, Chelsea Layne Sorensen May 23, 1990 – Dec 21, 2012 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I could not have completed this work without the encouragement, help, and guidance of family, friends, colleagues, and mentors. I am grateful to my wife, Natasha, who gave up the opportunity to further her education to marry me and be poor with me in Knoxville while I worked on my education. I am thankful to our son, Evan, who brings me joy and happiness each day, and thankfully allows us to sleep through most of the night. I am thankful for the continued support and guidance of my parents as I, their eternal student, figure out my path. I am further grateful for a mother-in-law who cheers me on as if I really were her own child. I am grateful for my siblings who are proud of their nerd brother, even if they find what I do boring. I am grateful to my friends and fellow students who have encouraged me and helped me: Shaunna Morrison and Brandy Buford from GSW who became life long friends beyond our friendly competition in undergraduate classes; My office mates Carissa Snyder and Ashley Manning Berg, and our frequent visitor Carolyn Tewksbury-Christle, for keeping me sane and on track; Will Atwood for pointed guidance and for teaching me how to use the 3-D scanner and the associated computer programs; Troy Fadiga for help on statistics and for asking the right questions that allowed me to sort out my thoughts and ideas; and Sean Blackwell for doing so many scans and cleaning up all of the scans, I would not have finished this in time were it not for his efforts. Acknowledgment here is not even enough thanks for the wonderful office staff in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department. The department wouldn’t even function without Melody, Angie, and Teresa. iv I don’t know how often they are lauded, but the library staff at UT is quick to assist any inquiry, rapid in responses and in delivering books and texts, and have a wonderfully designed on-line interface. Doing research would be much more difficult without them. I am grateful to Linda Kah and Chris Fedo for the opportunity to teach their labs and for the conversations they both made into teaching moments. I also thank Bill Deane for the opportunity to teach his labs and for the extra chances to teach in the summer. I am most grateful to my committee members. I would not even be in a graduate program if Burt Carter had not guided my efforts as an undergraduate and introduced me to the beautiful world of fossil echinoids. I am grateful to Mike McKinney for bringing me on as his student, for encouraging my ideas, and for guiding me through the jungle of statistical methods and terminology. I am further grateful to Colin Sumrall for taking on the role of advisor and for offering me a position in his lab for PhD research. I am also grateful to Colin for inviting me to be his field assistant and Spanish language coach in Argentina. I also wish to acknowledge the assistance of Dan Levin and Mark Florence at the National Museum of Natural History, and thank the Smithsonian Institution for allowing me access to the echinoid collections and for the loan of the material used in this study. Funding for this research came from the NSF Assembling the Echinoderm Tree of Life Grant, DEB – 1036260. Thank you Colin for sharing your money. v ABSTRACT Spatangoids are the echinoid group best represented in the South American Cretaceous fossil record. This study analyzed two Cretaceous spatangoid species of the genus Mecaster (M. batnensis (Coquand, 1862) and M. fourneli (Agassiz, 1847)) found in South America as well as Africa, North America, Asia and possibly Europe (Smith and Bengtson 1991, Smithsonian Collection). This study assessed the paleobiogeographical variation of these species. Specimens from at least eight widely spaced localities were measured for morphometric analysis. Initial observations using length, width, and height data of M. batnensis and M. fourneli populations indicate regional differences in growth trajectories. A comparative morphometric analysis including traditional two-dimensional measurements using calipers and three-dimensional landmark measurements obtained with a laser scanner was performed. Principal component analysis and other multivariate methods identified the extent of variation between localities. vi PREFACE While pursuing this thesis project, I have frequently contemplated the sources of material for this and future projects. I have reflected on the need to mitigate sampling biases in the fossil record. I have sought information on collections that lay untouched in museums. I have learned about the value, and challenges, of collaboration. And I have even contemplated, as part of my future career, the potential of educating my own network of future collaborators from regions where little work has been done. Echinoids have a dense fossil record and generally are well preserved; however, because of geographic sampling bias, the known fossil record of echinoids mostly records North American and European patterns (Smith 2007). The simple solution to correcting this bias is to collect samples in under represented areas, but to do so one must navigate the politics of local law and local academic climates. Many foreign samples previously collected are not currently located in the originating country, but rather in museums in Europe and North America. In starting this study I found that often fossils from many South American countries are not found in museums within the country of origin but at foreign institutions (personal communication del Rio 2012) - the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (USNM) being one of these “foreign” institutions. In some conversations with curators of museums in various countries there was evident resentment that type specimens from their countries were not part of their collections, but were rather parts of collections outside of their countries. For this current project I have used the collections at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History (USNM). The samples come from many sources. Some were collected by curators of the museum; others were donated by collectors; while further vii samples were initially sent in as inquiries from assorted businesses and government agencies regarding identity and later donated. One set of samples used in this study were from the Harvey Bassler collection of Peruvian fossils. The samples were collected by Bassler in excursions up and down Amazonian tributaries through the rain forests of Peru in the 1920’s (Willard 1966). He donated the collection to Lehigh University upon his death, and later Lehigh University donated the collection to the USNM. Other than the volume describing the general contents and collection localities of the Bassler collection (Willard 1966), I am unaware of any other published use of echinoderm specimens from this collection until this current study. The Bassler collection is not the only collection sitting in drawers in museums not being studied. Personal conversations with curators at other museums have informed me of collections from under represented regions that have yet to be processed, and literature searches have led me to knowledge of echinoid collections that have only cursorily been identified as either regular or irregular (e.g., Weidemeyer 2007). In future research I hope to utilize these unused resources, but for now, as part of this thesis project, I am pleased to utilize the general USNM collection and a portion of the Bassler collection. Many countries have in recent decades enacted or begun to enforce legislation to preserve their paleontological and archeological heritage. While some of these laws prove problematic to navigate, collaboration with local scientists can ease the process and has potential to be fruitful. A recent field excursion with my advisor, Colin Sumrall, to Argentina demonstrated to me the potential of such collaboration. We went to an area that has been thoroughly studied by stratigraphers over the past 150 years, and experts on trilobites, brachiopods, and sponges have regularly published on fauna, including new species, from the area.