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Utilities of Extinct and Extant Marine Arthropod Cuticle

Tashman, Jessica Nichole
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5119-3370
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1657725631626385

Abstract Details

2022, PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Earth Sciences.
This dissertation includes seven written chapters that each identify some uses for fossil and recent marine arthropod cuticle across studies pertaining to paleoecology, taphonomy, morphometrics, and systematic or evolutionary analyses. Chapters 1 and 2 are the dissertation Summary and Introduction, respectively. Chapter 3 describes a paleoecological study that pertained to how other organisms have interacted with arthropod cuticle. Chapter 3 focuses on the potential for modern paddle-bearing and non-paddle-bearing brachyuran crabs to remove infesting epibionts via grooming the surface cuticle of their carapaces. The modern crabs were used as proxies for several analogous fossil specimens from middle Cenozoic rocks from Oregon and Washington State to help differentiate in-vivo and post-mortem cuticle infestation by epibionts. Chapter 4 was a morphometrics study pertaining to population dynamics of the Pennsylvanian horseshoe crab Euproops danae from a new locality near Windber, Pennsylvania. By analyzing changes in surface cuticle morphology across ontogenetic stages, we can determine which cuticle characters are morphologically stable and which characters are more common across juvenile and adult members of a population. Chapter 5 describes several actualistic taphonomic experiments that were conducted to document how horseshoe crab corpse and molt cuticle break down over time when agitated in various sediment types and sizes. These experiments were performed to simulate conditions that may have led to the broken and disarticulated horseshoe crab fossil carapaces preserved in Late Jurassic lithographic limestones from Owadów-Brzezinki, Poland, to better-understand biostratinomic processes associated with horseshoe crab cuticle preservation. Chapter 6 considered the potential for marine arthropod cuticle microstructure characters to be implemented in systematic or evolutionary studies. It was the first study to create codeable cross-sectional and surficial cuticle characters across marine arthropod higher taxa and demonstrated that such characters could be used to establish similarities between related groups. Like Chapter 3, Chapter 7 was a paleoecological study focused on organism interactions with arthropod cuticle. The focus of Chapter 7 was to analyze fossil arthropod cuticle that had been observed with decayed plant material in hadrosaur coprolites from the Late Cretaceous Kaiparowits Formation in Utah. This chapter was meant to increase our understanding for why hadrosaurids, which have historically been considered herbivorous, may have altered their diets to consume crustacean cuticle.
Rodney Feldmann (Committee Chair)
Loren Babcock (Committee Member)
Joseph Ortiz (Committee Member)
Carrie Schweitzer (Committee Co-Chair)
199 p.
Geobiology; Geology; Morphology; Paleoecology; Paleontology
Arthropoda, Xiphosurida, Malacostraca, Decapoda, Fossil, Taphonomy, Geology, Paleoecology, Paleontology, Morphometrics, Cuticle, Microstructure, Morphology, Geobiology

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Tashman, J. N. (2022). Utilities of Extinct and Extant Marine Arthropod Cuticle [Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1657725631626385

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Tashman, Jessica. Utilities of Extinct and Extant Marine Arthropod Cuticle. 2022. Kent State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1657725631626385.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Tashman, Jessica. "Utilities of Extinct and Extant Marine Arthropod Cuticle." Doctoral dissertation, Kent State University, 2022. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1657725631626385

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

kent1657725631626385
139
© 2022, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Kent State University and OhioLINK.