SYSTEMATICS, PALEOBIOLOGY, AND PALEOECOLOGY OF LATE MIOCENE SHARKS (ELASMOBRANCHII, SELACHII) FROM PANAMA: INTEGRATION OF RESEARCH AND EDUCATION By CATALINA PIMIENTO A THESIS PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2010 1 © 2010 Catalina Pimiento 2 To my husband 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This project was funded by NSF EAR 0418042, Sigma Xi G2009100426, the Mitchell Hope Scholarship, and the Ken Ericson Scholarship. I want to specially give thanks to my advisor, Dr. Bruce MacFadden for his mentoring, support, encouragement and sympathy. He became a father during my master’s degree and I have to thank God for giving me the best advisor I could have asked for. I will always appreciate his patience when I was too intense with the research, his comprehension when I was homesick and just wanted to go see my family, and his sense of humor, especially during cold boring mornings. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Doug Jones, my co-advisor for being such a supportive and inspiring guide and for helping me to get out of trouble. Thanks to the remaining members of my committee Dr. Jonathan Bloch and Dr. Rose Pringle for their helpful feedback and advise during this project. Dana Ehret has been a great colleague; I thank his interest in my research and for being such a cooperative friend. A great share of this work was completed thanks to him. Thanks to everybody at the FLMNH for their constant help, and to Dr. Colette St. Mary for being very supportive and because I always could reach her, even with silly questions. Thanks Dr. Gordon Hubbell for helping with the identification of the material, for allowing me to study his private collection and for his helpful comments during this research. Special thanks to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, specially to Carlos Jaramillo and his field team: Aldo Rincon, James Wilson, Cesar Silva and Sandra Suarez for their support during the fieldwork and for facilitating the materials collected. Thanks to the Direccion de Recursos Minerales of Panama for collecting permits, to Felix Rodriguez and Aaron O'Dea for facilitating previous collected material and to Luz Oviedo, Marisol Lopez and Ricardo Chong for helping with the website. 4 Thanks to Rony Leder for helping with the identification of the material; Dale Winkler from the SMU, and Dave Bohaska and R. Purdy from the NMNH for access to collections. Thanks to Gary Morgan for beneficial suggestions to this research. Thanks to Maria Ines Barreto for showing me the north when I was lost; to all my dear friends in Gainesville for making my life sweeter, to my mom and dad for believing in me even when I doubted myself, to my brothers for being my inspiration and to my husband: thank you my love for supporting me during these two years of abandonment, for making this tough journey enjoyable, for help in editing manuscripts, practicing talks, and for being a constant source of ideas. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...............................................................................................................4 LIST OF TABLES...........................................................................................................................9 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................................10 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS........................................................................................................12 ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................13 CHAPTER 1 GENERAL INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................................15 Scientific Component .............................................................................................................15 Broader Impact Component....................................................................................................17 2 LATE MIOCENE SHARKS (CHONDRICHTHYES, ELASMOBRANCHII, SELACHII) FROM THE GATUN FORMATION, PANAMA.............................................20 Introduction.............................................................................................................................20 Geological, Paleontological, and Paleoecological Context ....................................................21 Methodology...........................................................................................................................24 Materials..........................................................................................................................24 Sampling Strategy ...........................................................................................................26 Systematic Paleontology.........................................................................................................27 Discussion...............................................................................................................................48 Taxonomic Longevity .....................................................................................................52 Size ..................................................................................................................................52 Habitat Preferences..........................................................................................................53 3 ANCIENT NURSERY AREA FOR THE EXTINCT GIANT SHARK MEGALODON (CARCHAROCLES MEGALODON) IN THE MIOCENE OF PANAMA.............................65 Introduction.............................................................................................................................65 Materials and Methods ...........................................................................................................69 Temporal Comparisons of Similar Faunas......................................................................70 Life Stage Comparisons ..................................................................................................70 Total Length Estimates....................................................................................................71 Results and Discussion ...........................................................................................................71 Temporal Comparisons of Similar Faunas......................................................................71 Life Stage Comparisons ..................................................................................................72 Total Length Estimations ................................................................................................73 Concluding Remarks: Nursery Area Hypothesis ............................................................74 6 4 BROADER IMPACT COMPONENT: ENGAGING YOUNG LEARNERS IN SCIENCE THROUGH A WEBSITE ON FOSSIL SHARKS FROM PANAMA ................78 Introduction.............................................................................................................................78 Problem............................................................................................................................79 Objective..........................................................................................................................79 Background......................................................................................................................80 Fossil Sharks from Panama as a Science-Engaging Tool.......................................................83 Why Fossil Sharks? .........................................................................................................83 Why Panama?..................................................................................................................83 Front-End Evaluation: Learning from and about the Audience .............................................85 Website Design.......................................................................................................................87 Formative Evaluation ......................................................................................................87 Web 2.0............................................................................................................................88 Website Sections .............................................................................................................89 Geologic time ...........................................................................................................89 Fossil sharks .............................................................................................................90 Megalodon................................................................................................................90 Present and future.....................................................................................................90 Recommendations and Best Practices ....................................................................................91 Communication with the Team .......................................................................................91 Keep it Simple .................................................................................................................91 Short Texts.......................................................................................................................92