bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Hydrolysis of Thallic Sulphate
Authors: Marshall Hugh
Published: June 2019

The alteration of the amount of hydrolysis by change of temperature has been directly observed in connection with various salt solutions. In the case of ferric salts, quantitative determinations have been carried out by Wiedemann, employing magnetic methods. He showed that, in the case of the sulphate, the amount of hydrolysis is considerably increased by rise of temperature. A similar effect is observed in the case of gallic sulphate, and here the change is directly evident; a solution of the salt when heated deposits white basic salt, which re-dissolves on cooling. A somewhat analogous case which has recently come under my notice, and which, so far as I am aware, has not been noted previously, is provided by thallic sulphate solution. The thallic salts generally are decomposed more or less easily by water, with formation of a brown precipitate, but dissolve in dilute acids, giving colourless solutions (Crooke, Lamy, Willm, Strecker). An acid solution of thallic sulphate, provided it does not contain too great an excess of sulphuric acid, may be used to illustrate several points connected with the hydrolysis of salts. Dilution with water produces a brown precipitate. A similar precipitate is formed in considerable quantity when the solution is warmed; when the mixture cools, the precipitate slowly re-dissolves, and a clear colourless solution is again obtained. It is therefore evident that the formation of the precipitate is not due simply to a colloidal substance being rendered insoluble, but to a greatly increased hydrolytic action.
Note on Mr Joseph O. Thompson's Results regarding Vibrating Wires
Authors: Peddie Dr W.
Published: June 2019

In 1865 Lord Kelvin published the results of experiments which first made evident “a very remarkable fatigue of elasticity, according to which a wire which has been kept vibrating for several hours or days through a certain range came to rest much quicker when left to itself than when set in vibration after it has been at rest for several days and then immediately left to itself.” On the strength of Lord Kelvin's statement this elastic fatigue of metals has been regarded as a definitely ascertained fact. But, quite recently (Physical Review, March 1899), Mr Joseph O. Thompson has published a paper “On the period and logarithmic decrement of a continuously vibrating wire,” in which he states that it seems probable that “for constant temperature and constant amplitude the logarithmic decrement is constant.” This conclusion is based upon his observation that the logarithmic decrement, in the case of a copper wire, when the amplitude of vibration varied from about 185° to 175°, had the same value after it had been continuously vibrated through the average arc of 180° for fifty consecutive hours as it had at the commencement of that period. Observations upon other metals seemed to support the conclusion.

Lord Kelvin also stated that fatigue caused an increase of the period of vibration. Mr Thompson finds that “no matter what metal was used, no matter whether the arc of vibration was as small as 20° or as high as 200°, no matter whether the wire was long or short, thick or thin (provided of course the breaking strength of the wire was at least twice the weight of the disc), the result was uniformly the same, namely, that when temperature and amplitude of vibration remained constant, the period of vibration was a constant quantity.”
An Improved Form of Craniometer for the Segmentation of the Transverse, Vertical, and Antero-Posterior Diameters of the Cranium
Authors: Hepburn David
Published: June 2019

Introduction.—All craniologists are familiar with the form of craniometer or calliper-compasses at present employed for the purpose of ascertaining the various diameters of the cranial box, and they know that these measurements represent certain facts in connection with the breadth, height, and length of the skull as applicable to a number of accepted fixed points upon the surface of the cranium. In effect these diameters are the direct lengths between two points upon an arched surface, i.e., they are the chords of certain arcs, and by the use of the measuring tape we may ascertain the relative proportions between the arc and the chord which subtends it. When several bones contribute to the formation of the arc we may readily determine the relative proportions between each section of the arc ⟨or the chord of each section⟩ and the chord of the entire arc, but it is a much more difficult matter to segment the chord of the entire arc in terms of perpendiculars prolonged to it from definite points upon the arc. For example, by callipers we obtain the glabello-occipital length or chord of the great longitudinal arc, and by measuring tape we may ascertain the frontal, parietal, and supra-inial sections of this arc, but we do not thereby segment the chord of the arc by perpendiculars prolonged to it from the bregma and the lambda. Again, such important transverse diameters of the skull as the minimum frontal, Stephanic, greatest parieto-squamous, and asterionic, are recorded without reference to their proportions on opposite sides of the mesial plane, while the almost constant visible asymmetry of the skull shows that the mesial plane does not necessarily bisect these diameters.
Preliminary Note of Experiments showing Heat of Combination in the formation of Alloys of Zinc and Copper to be Negative when the Proportion of Copper is less than about 30 per cent
Authors: Galt Alexander
Published: June 2019

In March of last year I communicated to the Society a paper giving a detailed account of the procedure adopted in an experimental investigation, which I had undertaken at the request of Lord Kelvin, on the heat of combination of pairs of solid metals in the formation of alloys, along with a statement of some results which had then been obtained.

The pairs of metals chosen were copper-zinc and copper-silver, and, briefly restated, the experiments were conducted as follows:—About half a gramme of alloy, reduced to powder by means of a file, was dissolved in dilute nitric acid, and an equal weight of a mixture of the same two metals in the same proportions was also dissolved under exactly similar conditions The difference between the initial and final temperature in each case is an indication of the heat of solution. If the two results are the same then there is no heat of combination in the formation of the particular alloy tested. But if the heat of solution of the mixture exceeds that of the alloy, then there must be heat of combination in the formation of the alloy equal to that difference. The experimental results, then, afford a means of approximately determining in absolute measure the heat of combination of the metals in the formation of an alloy.

The investigation has been continued since my last communication, and I expect to have it finished and to communicate the results to the Society either towards the close of the present session or at the beginning of the next.
Magnetism and Molecular Rotation
Authors: Kelvin Lord
Published: June 2019

§ 1. Consider the induction of an electric current in an endless wire when a magnetic field is generated around it, For simplicity, let the wire be circular and the diameter of its section very small in comparison with that of the ring. The time-integral of the electromotive force in the circuit is 2AM, if A denote the area of the ring and M the component perpendicular to its plane, of the magnetic force coming into existence. This is true whatever be the shape of the ring, provided it is all in one plane. Now, adopting the idea of two electricities, vitreous and resinous, we must imagine an electric current of strength C to consist of currents of vitreous and resinous electricities in opposite directions, each of strength ½C. Hence the time-integrals of the opposite electromotive forces on units of the equal vitreous and resinous electricities are each equal to AM.

§ 2. Substitute now for our metal wire an endless tube of non-conducting matter, vitreously electrified, and filled with an incompressible non-conducting fluid, electrified with an equal quantity, e, of resinous electricity. The fluid and the containing tube will experience equal and opposite tangential forces, of each of which the time-integral of the line-integral round the whole circumference is eAM, if the ring be a circle of radius r; and the effect of the generation of the magnetic field will be to cause the fluid and the ring to rotate in opposite directions with moments of momentum each equal to eAMr, if neither fluid nor ring is acted on by any other force than that of the electromagnetic induction.
On the Vascular System of the Hypocotyl and Embryo of Ricinus Communis, L.
Authors: Chick Edith
Published: June 2019

Sections of the hypocotyl of Ricinus communis are frequently examined as typical of the young stem, in which widely separated vascular bundles are ultimately united by a band of interfascicular cambium, and this by giving rise to secondary tissues connects the xylems and phloems of the primary bundles to form concentric continuous rings.

In the young unthickened hypocotyl of Ricinus there are eight such bundles connected by a continuous starch sheath and one layer of smaller cells immediately inside it. In some sections, however, confusion arises owing to the increase of the number of vascular bundles, and in the case of older hypocotyls these extra bundles are embedded in the cambium ring and have rather the appearance of secondarily formed tissues.

It was in the first instance to clear up the origin of these bundles that, at the suggestion of Professor F. W. Oliver, the following work was begun. Afterwards, as there seemed some advantage in working out in full the arrangement of the vascular system in this plant, which is so frequently used as a dicotyledonous type, it has been followed from the root, through the hypocotyl, to the 1st and 2nd internodes of the epicotyl.

The well-developed primary root of the seedling of Ricinis communis averages about 2 mm. in diameter. About 5 mm. below the junction with the stem it enlarges rapidly to attain the diameter of the hypocotyl, which varies between 4 and 5 mm. It is from this swollen portion of the root that most of the first developed lateral rootlets take their origin.
Changes that occur in some Cells of the Newt's Stomach during Digestion
Authors: Carlier E. Wace
Published: June 2019

With a view to ascertain as far as possible the minute changes that occur in the cells of the mucous membrane of the stomach during, and after, activity, I procured from England towards the end of winter a number of newts (Triton cristatus).

When they arrived they were very emaciated, and, indeed, in a starved condition, having no doubt but recently awakened from their winter sleep; they appeared, however, quite healthy, and swam well when placed in water, and took and retained food when given to them in the form of lively worms.

These English newts were fed at the same time with the same weight of worm, and killed at intervals after the meal, one being sacrificed every twenty-four hours, to the end of the tenth day.

Such long intervals were allowed to elapse between each sample taken, because Langley (13) states that during winter in thin and emaciated animals that have been fasting for a considerable time the changes take place very slowly.

These constituted the first set of experiments.

In June of the same year I procured a large number of fineTriton cristatusfrom the Eft Pond in the Braid Hills near Edinburgh. They were in good condition and very lively.

When worms were given them, they ate them readily, and were hungry again in less than twenty hours. However, to make sure that the stomach was quite empty and in a resting condition, I allowed an interval of one hundred and fourteen hours to elapse after the first feeding, and then, selecting newts of about the same size and weight, fed them a second time, each receiving the same amount of healthy worm.
On Some Remains of Scottish Early Post-Pliocene Mammals
Authors: Duns
Published: June 2019

At the meeting of the Society on the 20th February 1893 I had the honour of reading a paper “On the Early History of some Scottish Mammals and Birds.” Perhaps the title both of that paper and of the present should be “Remarks on the Literature associated with some Early Post-Pliocene Mammals.”

The science of a Species means much more than the naming of its several parts by Latin and Greek derivatives. Even as regards these parts, one would like to know something of extinct forms at the time when they had a place among the living, just as, when dealing with recent forms, we find much to shed light on the structure, probable habits, and surroundings, especially of mammals which became extinct in quaternary time. Questions arise that are worth noting, were it for nothing more than to make it clear that the mere obiter dicta even of able and wide-minded experts may often be misleading. The tendency which prevails to determine species by characteristic bone-marks can never be perfectly satisfactory, because there are many instances in which close structural resemblance is associated with great dissimilarity of habit. It is not so easy as some seem to think to distinguish between several of the long bones of the wolf with the corresponding bones of the collie, or between those of the sheep and of the goat. Then, as to footprints on stiff, tenacious quaternary clays, is there any risk of a label?—“marks of the feet of a small ruminant”—the marks being those of the feet of Sus scrofa (ferus) and not of gentle Ovis aries, L.
Les morts de L'histoire vivante : Gaston Roupnel
Authors: Roupnel Gaston
Published: June 2019

Gaston Roupnel s'est éteint à soixante-quinze ans, au printemps de 46, dans son cher pays bourguignon de Gevrey. Originale figure dans la galerie des historiens français contemporains. Romancier d'une part et historien de l'autre, disaient ceux qui le connaissaient ou le comprenaient mal. En fait, le portraitiste de Nono, vigneron de la Côte (1910) et du Facteur Garain (1913) était bien ‘le même homme que l'historien de La Ville et la Campagne (1922), cette originale thèse de Sorbonne qui révéla brusquement un historien, un vrai, à ceux qui en Roupnel ne voyaient qu'un amateur un peu fantaisiste. Cette étude sur « les populations du pays dijonnais », comme dit le sous-titre, est en réalité un des très rares livres nourrissants d'histoire sociaïe à qui notre XVIIe siècle paysan et bourgeois (ce déshérité) a jusqu'à présent donné lieu chez nous. Roupnel me sut gré (il me l'écrivit) d'avoir, dans le compte rendu que j'en fis paraître dans la Revue Critique, réuni dans un même éloge ses romans bourguignons à sa thèse d'histoire. Quand parut son Histoire dela Campagne française, je fus très séduit.
II. L'animosité anglo-hollandaise au XVIIe siècle
Authors: de Vries Ph.
Published: June 2019

Jamais unités politiques indépendantes ne furent aussi étroitement liéesque l'Angleterre et les Pays-Bas au début du XVIe siècle. N'oublions pas que l'Angleterre, appelée à devenir le centre géographique du monde après la découverte de l'Amérique, n'était, au moyen âge, qu'un pays excentrique dont la voix ne comptait guère dans le concert européen. Son conflit avec la France durant la guerre de Cent ans s'est déroulée sur un plan plus ou moins provincial. Le royaume noble, que glorifiera Shakespeare, n'était un siècle avant la naissance du poète qu'une poor relation de la famille européenne. Économie oblige : le plus important de ses articles d'exportation, le drap, devait être envoyé en Flandres pour arriver à son état de produit fini, l'Angleterre manquant d'organisation technique et économique pour fonder une industrie textile complète et indépendante.
II. Un livre : La Diversite des Frontieres de la France
Authors: Febvre Lucien
Published: June 2019

Aux Frontières de la France, Roger Dion vient de consacrer un petit livre plein de choses. On y trouve des textes et d'excellentes analyses de paysage ; des faits historiques et de remarquables photographies d'avion ; des coupes de terrain, des paradoxes et de sages réflexions — des choses fines, ingénieuses et justes, d'autres qui le sont moins ; le tout très « Roger Dion », si j'ose dire, traduisons : vivant, attrayant, séducteur. Peut-être un peu moins construit que d'habitude, et un peu décevant. Roger Dion me permettra de le dire : il sait que je ne lui mâche pas les éloges, ordinairement ; ce qui, d'ailleurs, n'est pas ma faute, mais la sienne.
Philosophy and Practice: Some Issues About War and Peace
Authors: Hare R. M.
Published: June 2019

I am going in this lecture on ‘Philosophy and Practice’ first to say something about philosophy and then something about practice, in order to show you how they bear on one another. But I must start by paying a tribute to the President of the Society for Applied Philosophy, Professor Sir A. J. Ayer, who has kindly agreed to take the chair at this lecture. I can honestly say that he is more responsible than anybody else for putting me on the right track in moral philosophy. He did this by convincing me, when young, that the ways people were doing it at that time had no future. In the famous chapter on ethics in his marvellously readable and exciting book,Language, Truth and Logic, Ayer was thought to be trying to show that moral philosophy itself, and perhaps even ordinary first-order moral thinking, was a waste of time. From later work of his, and from his occasional pronouncements about moral and political questions, it is evident that the second of these slanders was false. But even on the theoretical side the lessons I learnt from his book were positive as well as negative. That is not to say that the negative lessons were unimportant. Some people have still not absorbed them, and continue to waste our time. But here are two positive points which you will find in Ayer's book, and which for me were crucia
Punishment, the New Retributivism, and Political Philosophy
Authors: Honderich Ted
Published: June 2019

This paper will in good part concern six arguments taken as making up what is called the New Retributivism. It will also have to do with a seventh retributivist argument, and with the unexamined idea that reflection on punishment can lead a life of its own, independently of political philosophy. Both that idea and the arguments bear on the main question of whether punishment in our societies is right or wrong. It is a question not worn to a frazzle, as is the one of how it is that punishment is right, which piously presupposes that it is. My answer to the impious question gets very little wear in this reactionary and, as it sometimes seems, vengeful time. For a particular reason, it will have to go undefended here.
Imprisonment
Authors: O'Hear Anthony
Published: June 2019

It is appropriate that a lecture in a series on ‘Philosophy and Practice’ should open by considering Bentham's ideas on imprisonment. For Bentham, incontestably a philosopher, was equally incontestably a practical reformer. This, indeed, is a received idea among philosophers; that is to say, most philosophers know that Bentham designed ‘a model prison of novel design’ (Mary Warnock), but few have actually considered the design, its implications or its effects. Most are content, like Warnock, with observing that the panopticon plan was formally rejected, before passing on to the abstraction of Bentham's felicific calculus, his notion of utility, and his ideas about the foundations of law. Yet, strange as it may seem, the underlying idea of the panopticon has never been completely abandoned. One aspect of the idea pervades penal thinking, even while prison practice is still influenced by Bentham's practical proposals; moreover, the panoptic ideal has taken root far beyond the walls of actual prisons. Here is philosophy in practice, and yet, in many ways, practically and intellectually a failure.
Sexual Arousal
Authors: Scruton Roger
Published: June 2019

Human beings talk and co-operate, they build and produce, they work to accumulate and exchange, they form societies, laws and institutions, and, in all these things the phenomenon of reason—as a distinct principle of activity—seems dominant. There are indeed theories of the human which describe this or that activity as central—speech, say, productive labour (Marx), or political existence (Aristotle). But we feel that the persuasiveness of such theories depends upon whether the activity in question is an expression of the deeper essence, reason itself, which all human behaviour displays.
Morality, Individuals and Collectives
Authors: Graham Keith
Published: June 2019

My discussion in this paper is divided into three parts. In section I, I discuss some fairly familiar lines of approach to the question how moral considerations may be shown to have rational appeal. In section II, I suggest how our existence as constituents in collective entities might also influence our practical thinking. In section III, I entertain the idea that identification with collectives might displace moral thinking to some degree, and I offer Marx's class theory as a sample of collective identification for the purposes of practical deliberation.
Philosophical Confidence
Authors: Gorman J. L.
Published: June 2019

Analytical philosophers, if they are true to their training, never forget the first lesson of analytical philosophy: philosophers have no moral authority.

In so far as analytical philosophers believe this, they find it easy to live with. For them even to assert, let alone successfully lay claim to, moral authority would require, first, hard work of some non-analytical and probably mistaken kind and, secondly, personality traits of leadership or confidence or even charisma, which philosophers may accidentally have but which they are certainly not trained to have and had better not rely upon, while they live by analytical standards. Yet a further reason why analytical philosophers find the denial of their moral authority easy to accept is that they never forget the second lesson of analytical philosophy, either: nobody else has any moral authority.
Acting According to Conscience
Authors: Clarke Desmond M.
Published: June 2019

We have inherited from the history of moral philosophy two very different proposals about how we ought to behave. According to one view, we are required to do what is morally right; on the alternative formulation, we are required to do what we believe to be morally right. Unless these twin demands on our moral decision-making can be made to coincide by definition, it is inevitable that in some cases our beliefs about what is morally right may be mistaken. In such cases, it is not clear what we are morally required to do. Are we obliged to follow our conscience in every situation, i.e. to act according to our moral beliefs, or is it sometimes permissible not to act according to our own moral beliefs?
Ethics and Drug Testing in Human Beings
Authors: Mahon Joseph
Published: June 2019

In late May 1984, Irish citizens were perturbed to hear that a thirty-one year old man died while participating, as a paid volunteer, in a clinical drug trial at the Institute of Clinical Pharmacology in Dublin. At the inquest, held in September 1984, the State Pathologist, Dr John Harbison, affirmed that the cause of death was the reaction of the trial drug Eproxindine 4/0091 with a major tranquillizer which had been given less than fifteen hours earlier as part of regular treatment for a psychiatric disorder. The mixture of the two drugs, he went on to say, increased their effect by between twenty and thirty times their normal strength, and the volunteer had died of cardiac depression.
Paleobiology and biology of corals: introduction to volume
Authors: Stanley George D.
Published: June 2019

Because of their prodigious abilities for rapid calcification, corals today and in the past have been principal reef builders. The mere mention of corals evokes colorful and vivid image of tropical settings, swaying palm trees, and the crash of waves against the coral-dominated, biologically complex edifice we call the reef. Most geologists, educators, and students are aware of new developments in ecology and evolution of modern and ancient reefs, but they are probably less aware of studies of corals that build reefs. Understanding ancient examples rests on a foundation of modern coral biology and taxonomy. This volume summarizes the 1996 Paleontological Society Short course “Paleobiology and Biology of Corals.” Twelve international authors present current and cutting-edge topics in coral research.
Evolution in corals
Authors: Veron J. E. N.
Published: June 2019

This article is a summary of the main points about the evolution of corals put forward in Veron (1995). The main points presented are first, a family tree of the Scleractinia; second, an analysis of genera and their present-day global distributions, age patterns and diversity, including the Cenozoic fossil record; third, coral species and their global distributions, species determination in fossils of Pliocene to Recent age, their geologic history and geographic characteristics; fourth, the theoretical aspects of coral evolution based on surface circulation vicariance, reticulate evolution, and the nature and origin of species. For non-biologists, important concepts and terms are noted in bold and are defined in a glossary at the end of the text.
Recognizing species of Late Cenozoic Scleractinia and their evolutionary patterns
Authors: Budd Ann F. , Johnson Kenneth G.
Published: June 2019

New morphometric methods for distinguishing morphologically similar species of Recent colonial scleractinian corals involve the analysis of three dimensional landmarks digitized on calical surfaces. Variables suitable for multivariate statistical analysis are derived from the landmark data by applying various geometrical techniques, including Bookstein size and shape coordinates and generalized resistant fitting. Cluster analyses of these variables and study of the relative positions of replicates from the same colony on the resulting dendrograms are used to recognize clusters of colonies representing morphospecies. Comparisons with the results of genetic analyses on the same specimens suggest that these morphospecies correspond closely with biological species.

Although slightly less effective, similar analyses of two dimensional landmark data collected on thin sections of the same specimens also distinguish species, and suggest that biological species can be approximated in the fossil record. Multivariate statistical analyses show that variables derived from two dimensional landmarks can be used to trace the stratigraphic ranges of these fossil species. The appropriate method for tracing ranges depends of the evenness of sampling in different geologic horizons. Preliminary comparisons of observed stratigraphic ranges determined by this approach with those determined by cladistic analysis suggest that overall patterns in evolutionary rates through geologic time are the same for both approaches. Thus, nontraditional morphologic characters determined by subsequent examination of morphometrically-defined species have potential for providing sufficient resolution for phylogenetic analysis.
Is morphology a good way to understand the evolution of corals?
Authors: Lathuilière B.
Published: June 2019

Within a family, genera are usually separated on the basis of their colonial structure. The periodic occurrence of transgeneric highly variable specific units (spectra) in the fossil record poses nomenclatural and phylogenetic problems. A detailed example among Jurassic montlivaltiids is presented in this paper involving the generaMontlivaltia, Coenotheca, Thecosmilia, LatiphylliaandComplexastrea.These spectra are related to peculiar unstable nonreefal environments and are characterized by the dominance of young stages of the colonial growth (astogeny). The arising nomenclatural difficulties are solved by way of spectral nomenclature which allows naming morphological types, as well as taxonomic units and keeping some stability within the general frame of nominal taxa. Genera correspond to grades (solitary, thamnasterioid, phaceloid, meandroid, cerioid) rather than clades and the colonial structure is a labile character. Several alternative phylogenetic hypotheses are proposed, among which, some can renew our vision of this group and emphasize that the iterative production of generic-level shapes is best explained by mean of heterochronic processes. It is suggested that testing of these hypotheses be extended to other families such as Microsolenidae, Stylophyllidae or Fungiidae.
Origins and relationships of Paleozoic coral groups and the origin of the Scleractinia
Authors: Oliver William A.
Published: June 2019

Two major groups of corals have essentially continuous records from the Early Ordovician (Tabulata) and Middle Ordovician (Rugosa) to the end of the Permian. A third major group, the living Scleractinia, range from Middle Triassic to Holocene. Additional groups have shorter ranges within the Paleozoic. The origins and relationships of these groups have been discussed for over 100 years. Relations between the Rugosa and Scleractinia have attracted the greatest interest because of their morphologic similarities and the time sequence. Arguments involve the significance of serial versus cyclic septal insertion, calcitic versus aragonitic skeletal mineralogy, and the time gap between the last rugosans and first scleractinians (there are no known Lower Triassic corals). Discussions of relationships among the various Paleozoic groups are commonly based on detailed morphological comparisons because of their overlapping stratigraphic ranges.

Recent work on the living corals and anemones supports a closer relationship between groups than is suggested by placing them in different orders or suborders. The paleontological record of “anemones” is slight, but it is reasonable to assume that one or more groups of skeletonless zoantharians persisted through long parts of the Phanerozoic. It is suggested that the major groups of zoantharian corals originated through the development of skeletons in various anemone groups at several different times.
Morphological variation and homoplasy: the challenge of Paleozoic coral systematics
Authors: Webb Gregory E.
Published: June 2019

The extinct Paleozoic coral groups Rugosa and Tabulata suffer from confused systematics because of extreme morphological variation, pervasive homoplasy, and relatively simple skeletal morphology. Morphological variation occurs within individuals or colonies, between individuals within a population, and between populations. Variation at each level may have both genetic and ecologic components. Homoplasy is very abundant and extended sequences of parallel or convergent character transformations have led to the recognition of “recurrent evolutionary trends” in many lineages.

Morphological variation causes much difficulty in the recognition and characterization of coral species and homoplasy is problematic for phylogeny reconstruction. Improved coral systematics require a more holistic approach to both taxonomy and phylogeny analysis, including: 1) population-based species concepts, as opposed to typological approaches; 2) use of more quantitative techniques in species discrimination and description; 3) more attention to subtle morphological elements, such as microstructure; 4) description of ecological settings (depositional environments) to aid in analysis of behavior and to help unravel ecophenotypic plasticity; and 5) use of stratigraphic and geographic distribution data in phylogeny analysis, because skeletal morphology is inadequate by itself.
Biocrystallization models and skeletal structure of Phanerozoic corals
Authors: Sorauf James E.
Published: June 2019

Modern understanding of skeletal microstructure in fossil corals builds on knowledge of structure and biomineralization in modern corals and diagenesis of carbonate skeletons. It is agreed that the skeleton of living stony corals, the Scleractinia, is made of fibrous aragonite, with growth of biocrystals generally according to rules of crystal growth as observed in inorganic aragonite, but here controlled by organic matrix. Fossil scleractinians all apparently fit the same model of biomineralization seen in living corals, although some early taxa (Triassic) lack septal trabeculae, rod-like framework structures typical of all living and most fossil septate corals.

Paleozoic corals, both septate Rugosa and non-septate Tabulata, had a skeleton of calcite, most likely low-magnesium calcite, thus had diagenetic histories differing considerably from the aragonitic Scleractinia. Agreement is lacking as to whether a single structural motif can be defined for the calcitic corals, that is, whether the Rugosa and Tabulata originally had a calcitic skeleton built of fibrous biocrystals, analogous to the scleractinians, or whether some others originally had a non-fibrous, lamellar skeletal microstructure. The disagreement hinges on whether both of these basic configurations are biogenic, or whether the latter is sometimes or always diagenetic in origin. The presence of matrix control over biomineralization in Rugosa and Tabulata is yet to be proven, but will play an important role in models for biocrystallization in these older cnidarians. Details of diagenetic history and modification of structures in these calcitic corals likewise warrant investigation to improve our ability to interpret the Paleozoic corals.
The key role of skeletal microstructure in recognizing high-rank scleractinian taxa in the stratigraphical record
Authors: Roniewicz Ewa
Published: June 2019

Skeleton microstructure of Recent scleractinians proves to be a valuable suprageneric taxonomical criterion, and the same has been stated with respect to Mesezoic corals where skeletonal preservation is aragonite. In paleontological practice, septal microstructure is decisive in discrimination of taxa among homeomorphic genera of different families. Similarities of microstructural features of some Recent and fossil corals encompass the genera in common taxa of higher ranks and allow for reconstruction of their presumed phylogeny.
The utility of stable isotopic signatures in coral skeletons
Authors: Swart Peter K. , Leder Jim J.
Published: June 2019

There is a fundamental ecologic differentiation between zooxanthellate and non-zooxanthellate corals. This paper reviews factors which govern the stable carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of these groups of corals. Although the stable carbon and oxygen isotope compositions of coral skeletons are strongly influenced by environmental and physiological factors, the precise mechanisms remain a matter of debate. In particular the oxygen isotopic composition is known to be governed by the temperature and the oxygen isotopic composition of the water and perhaps also by kinetic factors. In contrast the carbon isotopic composition is controlled by a combination of photosynthesis, respiration, autotrophy, heterotrophy, and the isotopic composition of dissolved inorganic carbon. Using a combination of carbon and oxygen isotopes it is possible to distinguish zooxanthellate from non-zooxanthellate corals.
Instructions for authors of the Paleontological Society Papers
Authors: Babcock Loren E. , Ausich William I.
Published: June 2019

Manuscripts submitted to the Paleontological Society Papers must conform strictly to guidelines in order to ensure timely publication of each volume. Manuscripts, to be included in the series, should be no more than 25 single-spaced pages in length, and submitted to the volume editor by February 15 of the intended year of publication.
Brachiopods Between Treatises—A North American Perspective 1965–2000
Authors: Dutro J. Thomas
Published: June 2019

The Paleontological Society Short Course this year features the history of brachiopod research, especially since the beginning of the revision of Part H, Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, in the early 1990s. The first version of Part H was published in 1965 and the only previous Paleontological Society Short Course to deal with brachiopods was held in 1981 at the Cincinnati meeting of the Geological Society of America. At that time, the day was split between the bryozoans and brachiopods, with a nod to the phoronids, under the rubric of lophophorates.
Life Beyond the Permian—Mesozoic-Cenozoic Brachiopod Paleobiogeography, Paleoecology, and Evolution
Authors: Sandy Michael R.
Published: June 2019

The main focus here is the paleobiogeography and paleoecology of Mesozoic-Cenozoic Brachiopoda, mostly the forms referred to as articulated brachiopods. These are the forms I have worked on primarily for the past two decades. To put these creatures in context some attention should be paid to their evolutionary developments during this time (Fig. 1). The articulated brachiopods that continued into the Mesozoic from the Paleozoic are the rhynchonellides (internally with two processes or prongs, crura, to support the lophophore, Fig. 2.1; examples of external morphology shown in Figs. 3.1–3.5, 4.1); the terebratulides with a brachidium in the form of a loop to support the lophophore (“short-looped” in the Terebratulidina, Figs. 2.2, 2.3, 3.6–3.8, 4.2–4.5; “long-looped” in the Terebratellidina, Figs. 2.4, 2.5, 3.9–3.13); and two forms with a spiral lophophore support, the athyridides and spiriferides (these latter two both become extinct during the Mesozoic; Figs. 2.6, 2.7, 3.14–3.16). The thecideides are micromorphic, cryptic, articulated brachiopods (Fig. 3.17) that have much-debated origins (Baker, 1990; Jaecks, 2000).
Paleobiogeography: Tracking the Coevolution of the Earth and its Biota
Authors: Lieberman Bruce S. , Rode Alycia L. Stigall
Published: June 2019

Biogeography is a scientific discipline with a rich intellectual heritage extending back at least to the 18th century, and the discipline figured prominently in the development of ideas on evolution (see review in Lieberman, 2000). During the development of ideas on evolution, an important analogy was recognized between patterns of change in organisms across geographic space and patterns of change in organisms through geological time. For instance, Alfred Russel Wallace argued that, “If we now consider the geographical distribution of animals and plants upon the Earth, we shall find all the facts beautifully in accordance with, and readily explained by, the present hypothesis (Evolution). A country having species, genera, and whole families peculiar to it, will be the necessary result of its having been isolated for a long period…The phenomena of geological distribution are exactly analogous to those of geography. Closely related species are found associated in the same beds, and the change from species to species appears to have been as gradual in time as in space.” (Wallace, 1855 in Brooks, 1984, p. 75). Charles Darwin felt it was important enough to remark in the very introduction to his On the Origin of Species that, “…when on board H.M.S. ‘Beagle,’ as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the organic beings inhabiting South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts, as will be seen in the latter chapters of this volume, seemed to throw some light on the origin of species-that mystery of mysteries” (Darwin, 1859, p. 1).
Biogeographic Implications of Changing Oxygen Levels through Time
Authors: Ward Peter
Published: June 2019

Changing oxygen values in the past would have changed the potential for gene flow across higher elevations in terrestrial settings. In this brief review I discuss new work showing that intervals of low oxygen (essentially the late Permian through Middle Jurassic) should have caused extreme endemism among terrestrial animals and perhaps plants.
Paleobiogeography and Evolutionary History of Paleozoic Lacustrine Faunas
Authors: Park Lisa E. , Gierlowski-Kordesch Elizabeth H.
Published: June 2019

Lakes are important archives for continental records of paleoenvironmental as well as paleoclimatic change. They also record a unique macroevolutionary pattern that occurred when faunas invaded the continental realm. In order to document that pattern, we compiled a database of over ninety lake basins from the Neoproterozoic to the Permian. Each basin was evaluated based upon its sedimentology and paleontology and, where appropriate, was classified into one of three types: underfilled, balanced-filled, and overfilled, sensu Carroll and Bohacs (1999). The faunal elements from each were recorded at the species, generic, class, and phylum levels.

Looking at this critical time in lacustrine evolution, several patterns emerged. For the Neoproterozoic through Silurian time, there is a paucity of documented lake deposits and lake faunal records. Lakes during this time were oligotrophic and their nutrient cycling regimes were primitive. It is not until the establishment of land plants in the Silurian that lakes begin to respond with higher diversities and more complex physical and chemical conditions. During the Devonian-Carboniferous periods, diversity was on the rise as trophic levels became more complex. Globally, CO2 increased while marine Sr decreased, coinciding with the peaking of diversity within lakes. Most lakes of the Devonian and Carboniferous formed along continental margins or in tectonic basins with occasional connection to the marine realm. The faunas from these types of lakes were commonly comprised of mixed marine and freshwater elements and were far more diverse than other, more inland lakes. This “estuary effect” created a gateway or filter through which faunas invaded the continental realm.

The early history of lake faunas is one of opportunity and amelioration. The feedback loops created by the establishment of vascular plants altered the nutrient cycle on land and in lakes. All trophic levels were established early but became increasingly complex throughout the Paleozoic, as roles changed and faunal elements became established. Groups invading the continents via the “estuary effect” did so numerous times before establishing themselves permanently. This was linked with the episodic reestablishment in marine-freshwater connections along these continental margins. In general, the macroevolutionary history of lake faunas demonstrates a dramatically different diversification pattern than that of the marine, and further study is necessary to understand the intricacies of these patterns and whether or not they continue through the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras.
Paleontology's Greatest Hits
Authors: Bambach Richard K.
Published: June 2019

Although this paper mentions many specific discoveries and advances it is not intended as a catalog of the “biggest hits” in the sense of public notice, but rather it is an effort to chart how the diversity of paleontological work in the last century fits into the context of the biggest hit of all, the emergence of a “new paleontology” in which conceptual advances have revolutionized every aspect of our profession. When the Paleontological Society was founded no unambiguous fossils were known from the immense stretch of Precambrian time and no hominine fossils were known from Africa. Rigorous phylogenetic analysis and a seat for paleontology at the “high table” of evolutionary biology were in the future. Where once we learned a series of guide fossils and thought we had studied paleontology, now students explore taphonomy, paleoeocology, geobiology and macroevolution in our general courses on paleontology. This paper attempts to take notice of some of the highlights of our evolution from a field focused on cataloging and describing the contents of the fossil record into a complex, multidisciplinary endeavor focused on analytical study of general questions. Some of those hits have been discoveries that document the course of evolution, some have been new conceptual approaches that give us insights that link pattern to process, some are new ways of compiling, analyzing or communicating our knowledge. But with all that the study of the history of life remains at the heart of our profession. The change has been the shift in goal from description to understanding of that history, from “what” to “how.” The greatest hits have been the steps that have opened the way to understanding, that have made following the path possible.
Evolutionary Paleontology and the Fossil Record: A Historical Introduction
Authors: Sepkoski David
Published: June 2019

From the beginning of paleontology's existence as a distinct professional community in the early 20th century, paleontologists have argued about ‘where’ the discipline fits among the natural sciences. Long told that paleontologists ought to be content with a subsidiary role as mere documenters of evolutionary change or as stratigraphical ‘handmaidens' to geology, over the past hundred years many paleontologists have actively resisted restrictive pigeonholing and attempted to establish paleontology as an autonomous discipline with status equal to its cousins biology and geology. This essay will survey some of the efforts at paleontological ‘activism’ over the past century, focusing particularly on institutional placement, intellectual contributions, and the use of arguments about the adequacy of the fossil record to bolster claims for disciplinary status.
Geobiological Events in the Ediacaran Period
Authors: Xiao Shuhai
Published: June 2019

The Ediacaran Period represents a critical transition in Earth history. Major perturbations and innovations occurred in the Ediacaran climate, ocean, and biosphere systems. This paper reviews recent advances in Ediacaran glaciations, oxidation events, and biological evolution. There were one or more glaciations in the Ediacaran Period. Ediacaran successions also record multiple negative δ13Ccarb excursions in addition to the excursion associated with basal Ediacaran cap dolostones. These negative δ13Ccarb excursions possibly represent pulses of ocean oxidation events. The Ediacaran Period is also distinguished by two unique biotas—the Doushantuo-Pertatataka acritarchs and classical Ediacara biota—that characterize, respectively, the early and late part of the period. These two biotas appear to be separated by a glaciation and by a major negative δ13Ccarb excursion, although the exact temporal relationship among the climatic, geochemical, and biotic events is far from resolved. Future research should focus on improving geochronological, paleoenvironmental, and paleontological data from key Ediacaran successions in order to test the apparent and tantalizing couplings between evolutionary and environmental events.
Combining Uniformitarian and Historical Data to Interpret How Earth Environment Influenced the Evolution of Ichthyopterygia
Authors: Motani Ryosuke
Published: June 2019

How Earth and organisms interacted in the past is one of the largest questions in paleobiology. Observed histories of organisms and Earth environments need to be linked under a set of uniformitarian assumptions to address this question. Functional morphology, which studies how organismal body parts interact with their physical environments, is an important tool in establishing the link. Being uniformitarian or ergodic, functional morphology is most robust when directly incorporating physical (or mechanical) principles into hypotheses and their tests. Such ‘physical functional morphology’ may not be always possible, but the number of examples is slowly increasing. Once a series of robust functional inferences are made, it may be possible to study its correlation or correspondence with the historical record of environmental proxies. This framework was applied to the Mesozoic marine reptiles Ichthyopterygia, which is known for the evolution of fish-shaped body profiles in the derived clade Parvipelvia. A suite of evidence suggests that parvipelvians had advanced cruising ability and dark-adapted vision that were lacking in the more basal forms, which they replaced during the major marine transgression between the latest Anisian (Middle Triassic) and the middle Norian (Late Triassic). The ability to forage in broader expanses of and deeper water may have enabled parvipelvians to survive when shallow water environments became reduced during the major regression phase, but much more study is needed to test such an inference.