Assessment of Character Variation in the Crania and Teeth of Modern Artiodactyls for Better Species Diagnosis in the Fossil Record

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDavis, Edward
dc.contributor.authorEmery, Meaghan
dc.date.accessioned2016-11-21T17:00:46Z
dc.date.available2016-11-21T17:00:46Z
dc.date.issued2016-11-21
dc.description.abstractAccurately distinguishing species in the fossil record is difficult when the extent of osteological variation in many modern animals is unknown. Research into intraspecific variation has been conducted in a number of groups, but has not been conducted for systematics use in most modern artiodactyls. In this dissertation I quantify intraspecific variation of teeth in 14 species of modern artiodactyl, then test how accurately cranial characters diagnose modern, sympatric species of duikers, and use this information to reassess the artiodactyl diversity of a fossil group: the superfamily Merycoidodontoidea in the John Day Fossil Beds. Ultimately, variation is not constant between orders or different size classes, is influenced by morphology, size, and dimorphism, and this variation should be incorporated into fossil diagnoses to avoid both overconfidence of diagnosis and under-recognition of possible intraspecific variation.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/20726
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregon
dc.rightsCreative Commons BY 4.0-US
dc.subjectCamelen_US
dc.subjectDuikeren_US
dc.subjectJohn Dayen_US
dc.subjectOreodonten_US
dc.subjectOsteologyen_US
dc.subjectVariationen_US
dc.titleAssessment of Character Variation in the Crania and Teeth of Modern Artiodactyls for Better Species Diagnosis in the Fossil Record
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Geological Sciences
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregon
thesis.degree.leveldoctoral
thesis.degree.namePh.D.

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Emery_oregon_0171A_11724.pdf
Size:
4.8 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

Theses and Dissertations
Geological Sciences Theses and Dissertations