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Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 193-209). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Resumo: A Formação Adamantina do Grupo Bauru, Cretáceo Superior, é muito rica em fósseis de vertebrados. Dentre estes fósseis, destacam-se os restos de crocodilomorfos, em especial os do gênero Baurusuchus. Neste trabalho, é relatado pela primeira vez um grande conjunto de associações de ovos e cascas de ovos de crocodilomorfos fósseis restrito em uma área relativamente pequena nesta unidade litológica na região de Jales - SP. Este conjunto de associações revela informações inéditas sobre a provável biologia reprodutiva de Baurusuchus sp que não puderam ser obtidas, até então, através da análise de materiais osteológicos. A análise da morfologia e da histoestrutura dos ovos revelou que a espessura da casca, as unidades básicas e o padrão e formato dos poros são diferentes de todos os outros ovos de crocodilomorfos fósseis já descritos na literatura. O estudo das associações de ovos sugere que: estas não foram construídas em nível de lençol freático e não sofreram transporte; que alguns ovos eclodiram; o gênero Baurusuchus provavelmente nidificava em grupo, construía ninhos principais e secundários e retornava ao mesmo local de nidificação periodicamente. / Abstract: The Adamantina Formation of the Bauru Group, Upper Cretaceous, is very rich in fossils of vertebrates. Amongst these fossils, remains of crocodilomorphs are highlighted, in special of the genus Baurusuchus. In this work, it is reported for the first time, a great set of egg clutches and eggshells of fossils crocodylomorphs, restricted to a relatively small area in this lithologic unit, in the region of Jales - SP. This set of clutches discloses new information on the probably reproductive biology of Baurusuchus sp which could not have been obtained, until now, through the analysis of osteological materials. The analysis of the morphology and the histostructure of eggs unearthed that the basic thickness of the eggshells, basic units and the pattern and shape of the pores are different of all other fossil crocodylomorph eggs previously described in the literature. The study of egg clutches suggest that: these clusters were not constructed above the water table and did not suffer transport; some eggs hatched; the Baurusuchus genus probably nested in group, constructed main and secondary nests and returned to the same nesting site periodically. / Orientador: Paulo Milton Barbosa Landim / Coorientador: Rodrigo Miloni Santucci / Banca: Alexander Wilhelm Armin Kellner / Banca: Max Cardoso Langer / Banca: Luciano Martins Verdade / Banca: Mário Lincoln de Carlos Etchebehere / Doutor

Paleontology is based on fossils but what is the link between fossil specimens and our reconstruction of life history seems to be ambiguous. The majority of paleontological studies focus on fossil morphology to infer their phylogenetic status, but recently increasing number of studies emphasize the role of paleontological data rather than particular specimens. Datasets construction and data processing are still basic in many paleontological studies, thus hampering the transition towards data-driven paleontology. More importantly, there has been a lack of understanding of the difference between data and information embedded inside. In this thesis, I present examples of three kinds of paleontological studies driven by fossil, data, and information, respectively, which shows the reconstruction of evolutionary history via different level of features from fossils. Chapter 1 shows the evolution and development of ceratopsian dinosaurs with emphasis on the fossil materials from the Gobi Desert, Mongolia. Chpater 1.1 reports Beg tse, a neoceratopsian dinosaur that is sister to all other know neoceratopsians, and morphologically and temporally between neoceratopsians and more basal ceratopsians. In chapter 1.2, to further explore the development of Protoceratops as well as other ornithischian dinosaurs, two embryonic Protoceratops skulls are CT-scanned and compared with more mature Protoceratops and other ornithischian dinosaurs. The results show strong peramorphosis in ceratopsian dinosaurs and conservative cranial development in stem ornithischians. Chapter 1.3 reports a new species of Protoceratops, P. tengri, which bears a regular wavy pattern along its neck frill that is absent in almost all previously reported Protoceratops. Such structure may function as display as it seems to be the ancestral form of other patterned cranial structures in more derived ceratopsids. Chapter 2 focus on data-driven paleontological studies, especially the applications of artificial intelligence (AI). Chapter 2.1 is based on the data comprised from chapter 1.2, deep neural networks (DNNs) are used to segment CT slices of embryonic Protoceratops fossils and have reached human comparable performance, but the generalization ability of such models remains questionable. Chapter 2.2 shows DNNs-based localization and segmentation of osteons in histological thin sections from Alvarezsaurian dinosaurs. The results indicate a truncated development pathway rather than compressed development during the miniaturization of this group. Chapter 2.3 is a short review about previous AI applications in paleontology, in which a large portion is based on data from foraminifera, insects, and other microfossils while only few are working with vertebrate fossils. There are approximate 10-year gap in algorithms and datasets between paleontology and mainstream AI studies. Chapter 3 explores the even basic level of data-driven paleontology, the information. Under the framework of information theory and communication system engineering, chapter 3.1 introduces the basic concepts of information theory and how they are represented in paleontological studies. Chapter 3.2 quantify the information entropy, mutual information, and channel capacity in morphological character matrices of various groups of vertebrates. The results suggest alternative weighting strategy in phylogenetic analysis and question current construction strategy of morphological character matrices. Chapter 3.3 makes further perspective about the application of information theory in paleontological study by treating it as a communication system. During the last two decades, the increase of data and appearance of novel methods have led many research fields transiting towards data driven. However, the construction of datasets, harnessing of novel data processing methods, and establishment of a general theory all indicate significant lags between paleontology and many other research fields. This thesis provides the very initial examples towards data-driven paleontological studies.

We report 95 vertebrate taxa (13 fishes, 11 reptiles, 63 birds, 8 mammals) from late Pleistocene bone deposits in Sawmill Sink, Abaco, The Bahamas. The >5,000 fossils were recovered by scuba divers on ledges at depths of 27-35 m below sea level. Of the 95 species, 39 (41%) no longer occur on Abaco (4 reptiles, 31 birds, 4 mammals).We estimate that 17 of the 39 losses (all of them birds) are linked to changes during the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition (PHT) (∼15-9 ka) in climate (becoming more warm and moist), habitat (expansion of broadleaf forest at the expense of pinewoodland), sea level (rising from -80 m to nearly modern levels), and island area (receding from ∼17,000 km2 to 1,214 km2). The remaining 22 losses likely are related to the presence of humans on Abaco for the past 1,000 y. Thus, the late Holocene arrival of people probably depleted more populations than the dramatic physical and biological changes associated with the PHT.