Tag: Biology

Marshall Paleontologist Discovers New Species

A researcher at Marshall University has discovered an entirely new type of plesiosaur after studying the fossils of two creatures. News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Robert Clark, the academic laboratory manager for the Biology Department at Marshall, to find out more.

A researcher at Marshall University has discovered an entirely new type of plesiosaur after studying the fossils of two creatures. 

News Director Eric Douglas spoke with Robert O. Clark, the academic laboratory manager for the Biology Department at Marshall, to find out more. We’ll let him explain the name though. 

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Marshall University palentologist Robert O. Clark poses with the skull of a new plesiosaur he identified. It is called Unktaheela.

Courtesy Robert O. Clark

Douglas: Let’s define what a plesiosaur is.

Clark: When I talk to people about plesiosaurs, I think it’s helpful to start with the Loch Ness Monster. So picture the Loch Ness Monster in your mind. And what a lot of people tend to picture is basically what a plesiosaur looked like. It’s this huge reptilian sea creature with a head with sharp teeth, a long neck, kind of a teardrop shaped body, and four flippers. But the difference is, unlike the Loch Ness Monster, plesiosaurs were actually real and they lived in oceans all over the world during the time of the dinosaurs.

They were a pretty diverse group. So they didn’t all actually have long necks. Some had short necks. A lot of them were huge. Some of the biggest ones were 40 to 50 feet long. But there were also smaller ones, too. And the type I study is actually one of the smaller types. 

Douglas: What’s the process that you were studying plesiosaur and realized, hey, wait a minute, this isn’t something we’ve ever seen before?

Clark: It started actually before I came on board [with] my adviser here at Marshall, a plesiosaur expert named Dr. Robin O’Keefe. Marshall is an amazing school for Paleontology. Paleontology is kind of a hybrid between geology and biology, because we’re studying things that were once living, but they’re now entombed in rocks. And so we need to know about rocks and fossilization, and rock layers, but we also need to know about the living animal. And I’m way more interested in the biology side of things than like how things fossilized. I want to know what was this animal actually like when it was around? How did its body work? How did it fit into its environment?

Dr. O’Keefe didn’t pull it out of the ground himself. It was found by a paleontologist named James Martin in 1998 for the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. He [O’Keefe] was visiting them and realized the skull is something significant, and it’s not something that’s been described before. So they graciously gave us permission to work on that. When I became a grad student, you start anatomical comparisons and learning about plesiosaurs and this family of plesiosaurs called polycotylids and eventually realized that there’s this other skull over at the University of Colorado at Boulder that looks remarkably similar to the South Dakota skull.

Paleontologist Robert O. Clark identified the new plesiosaur Unktaheela using this fossilized skull.

Courtesy of Robert O. Clark

And so we start really comparing that and talking to those guys. That one was found in 1975 by a paleontologist named Ken Carpenter. The University of Colorado Boulder graciously allowed us to come and pick up that skull and bring it back to Marshall and really study it. They also have a nearly complete skeleton of the rest of the animal. And so we were able to travel out there a second time and spend a few days really analyzing the rest of the skeleton and realize these are the same animal and it’s a new type of polycotylid, unlike any other polycotylid plesiosaur that’s been found. 

The neat thing, too, is it the same exact rock layer just 42 miles apart on either side of the border between those two states. We’re very confident they’re the same species and they’re a new species and genus. 

Douglas: This is its own genus? 

Clark: “Yeah! So one thing that sets this guy apart is this family of polycotylid plesiosaurs, they’re often around 15 feet long, [but] this is actually the smallest polycotylid plesiosaur known as an adult, at only around seven and a half feet long. It would look similar to a human in size if you were swimming next to it.” 

It’s also fascinating because it has the largest eyes of any polycotylid plesiosaur known and they’re angled forward. So we think they had overlapping fields of vision. This thing could see with binocular vision and really zero in on its prey. We think this was a visually adapted predator and that’s one of the fascinating things about it. 

Another thing about its eyes is it had these bony ledges over each eye. And we think the purpose of that was to shade them from the sun. Because eagles have a really similar thing over each eye. And this was really surprising to us that there’s parallels with predatory birds.

Douglas: It’s interesting how you can make those leaps. And I understand it’s a hypothesis, but you can make those leaps based on this. Other animals that we know of today look like this, and this is what they do so you’re filling in the blanks, right?

Clark: So much of paleontology is looking at living animals, and what did they do with these anatomical features? And not just theorizing about what would make sense in your head but what’s actually going on with real animals today.

The newly identified plesiosaur Unktaheela was roughly the same size as a scuba diver in the water as shown in this illustration.

Courtesy of Robert O. Clark

Douglas: When I looked at the background information on this, I realized I couldn’t pronounce anything. What is the name of the specific polycotylid plesiosaur you named? 

Clark: This particular polycotylid plesiosaur we named Unktaheela. And the reason we named it Unktaheela is because it’s a Native American Lakota word. The Lakota people, their tradition tells of this mystical, horned water serpent that lived in the part of the country where we found these specimens. And that reminded us of a few things. It was said to have keen vision. And that reminded us of the visual adaptations. Horns reminded us of the bony ledges over its eyes. And then a water serpent that’s kind of like a sea serpent, plesiosaurs are kind of like sea serpents in a vague way, but it’s in the middle of the continent, which is weird for this water creature, but totally reminded us of the Western Interior Seaway. That was this huge inland sea that covered the middle part of the United States running from Canada all the way down to Mexico, essentially, dividing North America into two subcontinents. And that’s where this thing was swimming around. If you go out to the Midwest today, you can find all sorts of fossil shells and fish and shark teeth and fossil sea turtles and plesiosaurs like Unktaheela. 

Douglas: What haven’t I asked that you want to talk about?

Clark: It’s been a longstanding debate, how did plesiosaurs swim? It’s really interesting because there’s nothing on earth, alive today that has basically two sets of underwater wings. They have these huge flippers. You think about a sea turtle. It’s swimming more with its front flippers, right? The back ones it’s more steering with. Plesiosaurs had huge rear flippers, too and they were swimming with these two sets of flippers, these two pairs of underwater wings. And so how does that work? There have been all sorts of models for that. And so that robotics thing was trying to show what the most efficient uses of these would be. It’s interesting, because [with] a lot of sea creatures, you think about an undulating body more like a fish or a dolphin. 

Click here to view video and pictures of a swimming robotic plesiosaur.

But with plesiosaurs, they didn’t have a lot of flexibility in their body itself. It’s almost like a turtle, not with a shell but a really compact body. They had these pelvic and pectoral girdles that were just humongous and all these belly ribs called gastralia in between them, so a fairly rigid structure in their body. And so they weren’t undulating through the water. Instead, they were using their fore flippers and hind flippers to swim.

Interview With The Ichthyologist

They say there’s a lot of fish in the sea, but there’s also an awful lot of fish in the streams and rivers of Appalachia. A new book by fisheries research scientist, and WVU professor, Stuart Welsh showcases some of the lesser-known fish in the region. Bill Lynch spoke with Welsh about his book Hornyheads, Madtoms and Darters.

They say there’s a lot of fish in the sea, but there’s also an awful lot of fish in the streams and rivers of Appalachia. A new book by fisheries research scientist, and WVU professor, Stuart Welsh showcases some of the lesser-known fish in the region. Bill Lynch spoke with Welsh about his book Hornyheads, Madtoms and Darters.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity. 

Lynch: Let’s talk about Hornyheads, Madtoms and Darters. Describe what a hornyhead or a madtom or a darter is.

Welsh: Yeah, so hornyhead is a name for a group of minnows. And these are minnows that the males develop these little pointed horns on their head during the spawning season. 

They develop these horns, grow these horns, and they use them to spar. They compete for females during the spawning season. In some ways, it’s similar to a white-tailed deer with antlers, in that, a deer grows its antlers and then loses the antlers after their breeding season. 

It’s same situation with these hornyhead minnows. They grow these bumps on their head. They use them during the breeding season, and then they’re lost afterwards. Then, they they regrow them the following year.

Lynch: Madtoms: what are they like?

Welsh: Madtoms is a name for a group of catfish. 

Most people, when you hear the word catfish, you think of big fish like channel catfish, blue catfish, flathead catfish, but madtoms are a group of catfishes. They do not get very large. 

Their maximum size, depending on the species, may range from three to six inches in length. 

Most people don’t see them because it’s not a fish that you would often catch on a hook and line. But we have quite a few different species of madtoms in the Appalachians. 

They’re very interesting little fish and certainly worth telling a story about.

One thing I wanted to do with the book was to tell stories about these small fish. So, people can maybe understand them and get to know them a little bit better.

Lynch: You’re an ichthyologist? Is that correct?

Welsh: That’s correct. 

Lynch: When, where, how did you first start taking an interest in fish? 

Welsh: I think it was when I was a young kid, you know? 

I really enjoyed fishing. And so, I spent a lot of time in creeks and, not necessarily fishing all the time, but flipping rocks and looking for crayfish, aquatic salamanders, and various critters. 

I think that focus at an early age kind of sparked my interest. And I was able to keep it going into a career

Lynch: Kicking over rocks and fishing is one thing but academic study is something else. What kind of path is that? 

Welsh: Well, it’s a long tedious path, I guess you would say. It requires a lot of graduate work. I got a B.S, degree at West Virginia University and then I went on to get a master’s degree at Frostburg State in fisheries management. And then I came back to West Virginia University for my Ph.D. where I was focused on fisheries work.

Lynch: How diverse is the fish population in central Appalachia?

Welsh: We have a lot of different kinds of fish. 

For example, in West Virginia alone, which is certainly the heart of central Appalachia, we have a lot of species – 195. 

So, there’s a lot of different kinds of fishes we have. And most people are familiar with the common ones, especially ones that you catch on rod and reel, but the smaller ones, a lot of people don’t know about them very much. 

So, I think that’s one of the opportunities for a book like this is to provide information about this fish: to let people learn a little bit more about them.

Lynch: Talk about the book and putting it together. 

Welsh: It’s a collection of stories on central Appalachian fishes. 

There are stories on some familiar fish – like the native brook trout, the smallmouth bass, the bluegill sunfish. But then there’s also several stories on fishes that people know less about, such as in the title – hornyheads, madtoms and darters. 

Also, there’s some fishes that are unusual that are discussed, like, for example, the lampreys, which are a group of fishes that are pretty small, but they have kind of an eel like body. Then you’ve got a fish called the trout perch that I talked about, which is really fascinating little fish of central Appalachia. 

Lynch: How did you narrow down which fish you wanted to deal with?

Welsh: Yeah, that was a challenge because I find all the fishes that we have to be fascinating and interesting and worthy of a story. 

But I tried to just focus on some of the fishes that I thought would make the most interesting stories, because what I wanted to do was to write stories that would be both educational but also interesting for a wide audience.

And so, I tried to select fishes that had an interesting story to be told often that was related to a certain type of behavior or maye a certain type of feeding strategy, a certain type of spawning strategy. 

It was typically some aspect of that fish that I thought was interesting that I emphasized in the story.

Lynch: What do you hope an average reader takes away from your book?

Welsh: What I would hope is that people would realize central Appalachia has a diversity of fishes. That there’s a lot to be learned. You know, often when you know more about something, you care about it. My hope, in the end, is that this book will increase the conservation of fishes in the central Appalachians by making people more aware of the diversity that we have.

Lynch: The book is called Hornyheads, Madtoms and Darters. Stuart Welsh, thank you very much.

Welsh: Thank you. I appreciate it.

A male candy darter. One of the fish featured in the book “Hornyheads, Madtoms, and Darters”

“Hornyheads, Madtoms and Darters,” from Ohio University Press is available in bookstores.

Allegheny Woodrats Return To Harpers Ferry National Historical Park After 20 Year Absence

Biologists from Radford University found the rodents in the Virginia section of the park, which also spans West Virginia and Maryland.

The Harpers Ferry National Historical Park has rediscovered Allegheny woodrats on park grounds – the first such sighting of the rodents in the area in two decades.

Biologists from Radford University found the rodents in the Virginia section of the park, which also spans West Virginia and Maryland. Both adults and infants of the species were discovered in the area by researchers, who say it’s the northernmost they’ve spotted the woodrats in the state.

The vulnerable species makes its home in rocky outcrops, and its loss of habitat is one of the factors that has seen the species’ population quickly decrease over the past few decades.

“You’re not going to find a whole lot of woodrats in one particular area. And they have a home range of a couple of acres; five to six acres, five to 12 acres,” said Scott Bates, wildlife biologist for the National Park Service’s Capital Region. “And so sometimes, the population at one outcrop will disappear. And then eventually it will be re-colonized by woodrats from a neighboring outcrop.”

Bates also says that the resurgence of the rare species in the area can be a boon for tourists.

“I think it’s cool to know that we have a unique and rare species that is able to persist at the park,” Bates said. “From a local perspective, anything that creates more interest in the park can have a positive economic impact for the region, as well as the positive environmental impact.”

Park representative Leah Taber says it’s an example of how protected lands can provide safe habitats for different types of threatened animals.

“It’s important to have these places for biodiversity, that we’re able as a national park to protect species of all shapes and sizes,” Taber said.

The discovery of Allegheny woodrats marks the second such reappearance of threatened animals at Harpers Ferry in recent memory – peregrine falcons had returned to nest at the park starting last year.

Marshall University Anthropologist Uses 3-D Printer to Teach Human Evolution

    

Biological Anthropologist Paul Constantino has decided that a 3-Dimensional printer is the next step in teaching his students about human evolution.

Constantino and the department purchased the high tech 3-D printer to help with teaching about specimens that are so old they wouldn’t usually be able to touch them. Using the printer he’s able to give his students in human anatomy courses a chance to handle replicas of specimens they are studying. The machine is so new to the department they’re not sure what all they can do with it. Constantino said it just makes sense as the next step in learning for students.

“A lot of times you have 3-dimensional data on your computer and you can see it on your computer, but it’s still really hard to visualize how shapes change and two skulls for instance, how these two species may differentiate from each other, so we can actually print them off here and hold them in our hands and it’s much more intuitive for us not only as researchers, but for students to see the differences,” Constantino said.

The printer creates a model that fits the exact specifications of whatever is inputted into the system. Constantino said it’s a process that doesn’t take long and can make the classroom experience that much easier for students to see parts of the anatomy. He says the printer prints off about 20 millimeters per hour, so for a skull it takes 2-3 hours. From there they have to blow off excess powder and then use an epoxy to harden the object and make sure it’s durable. All told it takes 3-4 hours.

The anthropologist sees no limit to how the technology could be used all over campus, such as others in the science fields, but also others throughout the university, for a hands-on experience.

“We feel like there are teachers all over the university that could potentially benefit from it, we envision people that work on the molecular scale being able to print off scaled up versions of their molecules and show them to their students, so rather than trying to picture what it looks like in their head they can actually see in their hands a model of what this molecule might look like,” Constantino said.

He said professors will quickly see that’s one of the many things about the future of education that’s becoming much more interactive. He said 3-D printing as the future of hands-on education once it becomes cheaper and more people realize the benefit.

Constantino said the next step is to purchase a 3-D scanner to complement the printer. 

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