scholarly journals New social insect nests from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Utah

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 281-299
Author(s):  
Elliott Armour Smith ◽  
Mark A. Loewen ◽  
James I. Kirkland

This paper reports a new assemblage of social insect ichnofossils from the Brushy Basin Member of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation near Green River, Utah. At least seven distinct nests are visible in the locality horizon, identifiable at the outcrop scale by loci of anastomosing, and orthogonally connected hor-izontal burrows and vertical shafts. A boulder-sized block from the in situ horizon has eroded and rolled downhill, revealing the ventral aspect of the nest, showing a view of the overall nest architecture. Burrow and shaft clusters are organized into mega-galleries which have branching arms and ovate, bulbous cham-bers. The organization of distinct trace morphologies is consistent with ethological complexity of the social insects. A small sample was collected and analyzed by serial sectioning and petrographic thin sectioning to observe small-scale morphological features. Centimeter-scale analysis shows chamber, gallery, and burrow walls have complex topography. Pebble-sized, hollow, ellipsoid features are distributed throughout the up-permost facies of the nest and have undergone complete silicification of their outer surfaces. The ellipsoids share similarity with pellet structures made of mud or carton produced by modern termites. This trace fossil assemblage suggests it is possible that termites had acquired subterranean nesting behavior, and mud or carton utilization in nest construction in seasonally arid habitats by the Late Jurassic.

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
U.K. Sen ◽  
R.K. Bhakat

Sacred groves are distinctive examples of biotic components as genetic resources being preserved in situ and serve as secure heavens for many endangered and endemic taxa. From this point of view, the biological spectrum, leaf spectrum and conservation status of the current sacred grove vegetation, SBT (Swarga Bauri Than) in Jhargram district of West Bengal, India, have been studied. The area's floristic study revealed that SBT’s angiosperms were varied and consisted of 307 species belonging to 249 genera, distributed under 79 families of 36 orders as per APG IV. Fabales (12.05%) and Fabaceae (11.73%) are the dominant order and family in terms of species wealth. Biological spectrum indicates that the region enjoys “thero-chamae-cryptophytic” type of phytoclimate. With respect to the spectrum of the leaf size, mesophyll (14.05%) was found to be high followed by notophyll (7.84%), microphyll (7.19%), macrophyll (7.84%), nanophyll (6.86%), leptophyll (6.21%), and megaphyll (2.29%). The study area, being a sacred grove, it has a comparatively undisturbed status, and the protection of germplasm in the grove is based on traditional belief in the social system.


1990 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Chure ◽  
John McIntosh

Discovered in 1909 by Earl Douglass of the Carnegie Museum, the Dinosaur Quarry (DQ) at Dinosaur National Monument has proven to be one of our best windows into the large vertebrate community of the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic). To date, the remains of several hundred individuals belonging to sixteen species of dinosaurs and other vertebrates have been found. The DQ has produced more species, skulls, juveniles, and complete skeletons than any other Morrison Formation quarry. Between 1909 and 1924, the DQ was actively quarried and over 700,000 lbs. of fossils were collected. In 1958 the National Park Service enclosed the unexcavated area of the DQ within a building with both exhibits and research facilities. Since that time over 2,000 bones have been uncovered and left in situ, just as they were deposited. The concept of an enclosed quarry with an in situ exhibit of fossils has been successfully followed at a number of parks both within the U.S. and abroad.


Author(s):  
Jorge Sanjurjo-Sánchez ◽  
Carlos Alves

Stones has been used from pre-historical times with different purposes and this historical use can be seen as an extended record of its sustainability, regarding extraction procedures and consequences, uses in building and maintenance to overcome decay. We discuss in this paper conceptual considerations on the sustainability of local use of rocks in a small scale (what will be assumed to define a “rural” scope), covering both in situ uses, mostly as cave housing, and extracted materials for creation of structures. Our discussion will develop around two main axes: resources consumption (including the rocks themselves and rock wastes resulting from other activities) and pollution impacts (on the surrounding environment and in the users of the rock structures). It will be seen that the main concerns will be related to specific spots with enhanced environmental or cultural value (where small changes can have enormous impacts). Other issues have minimal impact or can be dealt by design options. We consider also possible positive impacts resulting from the use of rock materials, namely in the social and economic components, including the use of rock wastes as resources and the touristic potential of rock quarries, structures and human-made landscapes.


Author(s):  
Dean A. Handley ◽  
Jack T. Alexander ◽  
Shu Chien

In situ preparation of cell cultures for ultrastructural investigations is a convenient method by which fixation, dehydration and embedment are carried out in the culture petri dish. The in situ method offers the advantage of preserving the native orientation of cell-cell interactions, junctional regions and overlapping configurations. In order to section after embedment, the petri dish is usually separated from the polymerized resin by either differential cryo-contraction or solvation in organic fluids. The remaining resin block must be re-embedded before sectioning. Although removal of the petri dish may not disrupt the native cellular geometry, it does sacrifice what is now recognized as an important characteristic of cell growth: cell-substratum molecular interactions. To preserve the topographic cell-substratum relationship, we developed a simple method of tapered rotary beveling to reduce the petri dish thickness to a dimension suitable for direct thin sectioning.


Author(s):  
D.M. Seyedi ◽  
C. Plúa ◽  
M. Vitel ◽  
G. Armand ◽  
J. Rutqvist ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 136700692110231
Author(s):  
Mary Walworth ◽  
Amy Dewar ◽  
Thomas Ennever ◽  
Lana Takau ◽  
Iveth Rodriguez

Each of the 65 inhabited islands of Vanuatu hosts its own unique linguistic environment in which varying degrees of multilingualism are found. This paper defines various types of small-scale multilingual settings in Vanuatu and explores what sociohistorical factors have led to them. This paper is based on first-hand observations and primary data collected by the authors in four locations in the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu since 2016: two neighboring villages of Emae Island (Makatu and Tongamea), North Malekula, and on Maewo Island. The assessments of multilingualism in these examples from Vanuatu were qualitative, based on observations of sociolinguistic practices in each of these areas, as well as data from language history and language use surveys carried out in each place. Through defining and comparing the types of multilingualism present in the four case studies, we identify patterns in the social and historical processes that lead to various kinds of multilingualism: (a) interaction of linguistic and sociocultural identities and (b) mobility of both individuals and entire speech communities. The examples described in this paper are used to highlight the diversity of multilingualism found in Vanuatu and to explore how their differing linguistic environments and histories have contributed to their varying degrees of multilingualism. This paper makes an original contribution to knowledge about the small-scale multilingual situations in Vanuatu, offering descriptions of previously undocumented and endangered multilingual environments. Through an examination of the sociocultural motivations for multilingualism, alongside historical migrations of speaker groups and marked sociolinguistic identities, this paper contributes to research on why and how small-scale multilingualism can develop. Furthermore, this paper provides the foundation for future, more rigorous investigations into the small-scale multilingual situations of this highly understudied region.


1974 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohair A. Sebai

SummaryFamily planning is not being practised in Wadi Turaba in western Saudi Arabia, which is a Bedouin community with different stages of settlement. Children are wanted in the family, and the more children, especially boys, the better the social status of the family in the community. The desire of a mother for more children does not appear to be affected by her age group, history of previous marriages or history of previous pregnancies.Knowledge about contraceptives practically does not exist, except on a small scale in the settled community. Every woman, following the Koranic teachings, weans her child exactly at the age of 2 years, which obviously leads to the spacing of births. In rather rare situations, coitus interruptus is practised.


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