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Response of Cretaceous Marine Reptiles to Paleoceanographic Changes: Sea Level and Climate Changes as Drivers of Origination and Extinction

Vanderslice, William Dale, III

Abstract Details

2018, Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, Geology.
The Cretaceous Period was a time of great environmental volatility and most notably known for being one of the periods when dinosaurs existed. However, during this time the apex predators of the oceans were marine reptiles. These marine reptile groups included ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and mosasaurs. How these three marine reptile groups reacted to environmental volatility of the time during the Cretaceous was assessed in this study. Marine reptile occurrence data was compiled and used to calculate origination and extinction along with correlated with ocean temperature, ocean anoxia and sea level, proxies were used for both ocean temperature and ocean anoxia. Analyses included cross correlation along with multiple regression and random forest analysis. The results of these analyses showed that each marine reptile group were affected by the changing environment during the Cretaceous. Each marine reptile group were specifically affected the most by ocean anoxia with both ichthyosaur and plesiosaur diversity dropping due to anoxia but mosasaur diversity actually increased during times of anoxia. What was also interesting is that how volatile the environment was did not affect each marine reptile group strongly either positively or negatively. Overall each marine reptile group was affected by the changing environment of the Cretaceous but how volatile that environment was did not play any significance.
Margaret Yacobucci, Doctor (Advisor)
Andrew Gregory, Doctor (Committee Member)
Jeffrey Snyder, Doctor (Committee Member)
117 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Vanderslice, III, W. D. (2018). Response of Cretaceous Marine Reptiles to Paleoceanographic Changes: Sea Level and Climate Changes as Drivers of Origination and Extinction [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1542284081403242

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Vanderslice, III, William. Response of Cretaceous Marine Reptiles to Paleoceanographic Changes: Sea Level and Climate Changes as Drivers of Origination and Extinction. 2018. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1542284081403242.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Vanderslice, III, William. "Response of Cretaceous Marine Reptiles to Paleoceanographic Changes: Sea Level and Climate Changes as Drivers of Origination and Extinction." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1542284081403242

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)