Richard J Knecht Thesis Defense (Naomi Pierce, Advisor)
Date and Time
Location
Title:Terrestrial Life in the Paleozoic: An Integrated Analysis of Body Fossils, Trace Fossils, and Biomarkers
Abstract: The Carboniferous Period (359-299 million years ago) represents a critical interval in Earth's history, marked by the diversification of terrestrial ecosystems and the evolution of key adaptations that would shape modern biodiversity patterns. My dissertation addresses fundamental questions regarding the ecological complexity, evolutionary innovations, and environmental adaptations of organisms during this formative period in terrestrial life’s history. Chapter 1’s research presents an original discovery and analysis of an Early Pennsylvanian (~320-318 Mya) Lagerstätte from the Wamsutta Formation of southeastern Massachusetts (USA). Unlike most Carboniferous deposits that represent coal swamp environments, this site preserves a clastic-dominated, subhumid alluvial fan ecosystem, providing rare insight into extrabasinal terrestrial habitats that existed during this critical period but are seldom preserved in the fossil record. Chapter 2 describes two new species of Carboniferous whip scorpion (Thelyphonida) fossils discovered in the Narragansett Basin of Massachusetts, USA. These discoveries are biogeographically significant as they represent only the second site in the western hemisphere (western Laurasia) to yield Paleozoic whip scorpions. Chapter 3presents the earliest evidence of endophytic feeding in the fossil record and is from plant foliage of the Late Carboniferous period (approximately 312 million years ago), discovered in the Rhode Island Formation of Massachusetts. This discovery predates previously confirmed leaf mines by about 60 million years and documents an important evolutionary transition in plant-insect interactions. Chapter 4 describes new lobopodian taxa discovered within the MCZ’s Invertebrate Paleontology collection that had been misidentified for well over a century.
Committee: Naomi Pierce (Advisor), David Haig (Chair), Andrew Davies, Conrad Labandeira