Adiël A. Klompmaker

Bio: Adiël A. Klompmaker is an academic researcher from University of California, Berkeley. The author has contributed to research in topics: Cretaceous & Anomura. The author has an hindex of 22, co-authored 67 publications receiving 1174 citations. Previous affiliations of Adiël A. Klompmaker include Florida Museum of Natural History & Kent State University.

Increase in predator-prey size ratios throughout the Phanerozoic history of marine ecosystems.

Abstract: The escalation hypothesis posits that predation by increasingly powerful and metabolically active carnivores has been a major driver of metazoan evolution. We test a key tenet of this hypothesis by analyzing predatory drill holes in fossil marine shells, which provide a ~500-million-year record of individual predator-prey interactions. We show that drill-hole size is a robust predictor of body size among modern drilling predators and that drill-hole size (and thus inferred predator size and power) rose substantially from the Ordovician to the Quaternary period, whereas the size of drilled prey remained stable. Together, these trends indicate a directional increase in predator-prey size ratios. We hypothesize that increasing predator-prey size ratios reflect increases in prey abundance, prey nutrient content, and predation among predators.

The influence of reefs on the rise of Mesozoic marine crustaceans

Abstract: Ecosystems changed dramatically during the Mesozoic marine revolution, including the rise of decapod crustaceans such as lobsters, shrimp, true crabs, and squat lobsters. However, quantitative patterns of decapod biodiversity through geological time are virtually unknown. This hampers our understanding of their importance in past ecosystems and timing and causes of their radiations and extinctions. Based on our compilation of ~1300 Mesozoic decapod species, we document a long-term shift in diversity of dominant groups, marked by the fi rst appearance and increasing presence of true crabs and, to a lesser extent, squat lobsters. By the end of the Mesozoic, true crabs became the primary contributor to decapod diversity, a pattern that has persisted until the present time. This “Mesozoic decapod revolution” was advanced by a major radiation of reef-dwelling crabs, which coincided with a dramatic expansion of reefs in the Late Jurassic. The subsequent collapse of reefs near the end of the Jurassic was mirrored by a sharp (albeit temporary) drop in decapod diversity driven primarily by extinctions of numerous species of crabs. This concurrent decline also suggests that decapods inhabiting reefs, especially obligatory reef dwellers, may face elevated extinction risks today as reef ecosystems continue to deteriorate. The reef-related diversifi cation of Late Jurassic decapods and the signifi cant correlation between decapod diversity and reef abundance throughout the Mesozoic underscore the macroevolutionary importance of biotic interactions and ecosystem engineering.

Taphonomic bias on drill-hole predation intensities and paleoecology of pliocene mollusks from langenboom (mill), the netherlands

Abstract: Marine Pliocene mollusks are abundant in sand deposits at Langenboom, the Netherlands. Three samples, totaling nearly 15,000 mollusks, were identified and assessed for drill-hole predation marks. An approach commonly used by researchers was performed to calculate a drill-hole predation intensity based on bivalves with complete margins only. This method, however, introduced a significant taphonomic bias: an assemblage of bivalve drill-hole predation intensity of ∼30% was found for complete valves only, compared to an assemblage of bivalve drill-hole predation intensity of ∼20% based on complete and fragmented valves with more than 50% of the hinge preserved. This bias was caused by a significant change in the faunal composition when fragmented valves, primarily broken by compaction, were taken into account. For assemblages with many broken valves, this bias should be estimated to be comparable to drill-hole predation intensities based on pristine collections. This bias becomes especially important in studies on evolutionary escalation through time. Naticids appeared to be the predominant drill-hole-producing predator (only one definite drill hole was found) based on drill-hole morphology and the gastropod composition. Muricid predators were absent, probably because most bivalve prey is infaunal.

Parasites in the fossil record: a Cretaceous fauna with isopod-infested decapod crustaceans, infestation patterns through time, and a new ichnotaxon.

Abstract: Parasites are common in modern ecosystems and are also known from the fossil record. One of the best preserved and easily recognisable examples of parasitism in the fossil record concerns isopod-induced swellings in the branchial chamber of marine decapod crustaceans. However, very limited quantitative data on the variability of infestation percentages at the species, genus, and family levels are available. Here we provide this type of data for a mid-Cretaceous (upper Lower Cretaceous, upper Albian) reef setting at Koskobilo, northern Spain, on the basis of 874 specimens of anomurans and brachyurans. Thirty-seven specimens (4.2%), arranged in ten species, are infested. Anomurans are more heavily infested than brachyurans, variability can be high within genera, and a relationship may exist between the number of specimens and infestation percentage per taxon, possibly suggesting host-specificity. We have also investigated quantitative patterns of infestation through geological time based on 88 infested species (25 anomurans, 55 brachyurans, seven lobsters, and one shrimp), to show that the highest number of infested species can be found in the Late Jurassic, also when corrected for the unequal duration of epochs. The same Late Jurassic peak is observed for the percentage of infested decapod species per epoch. This acme is caused entirely by infested anomurans and brachyurans. Biases (taphonomic and otherwise) and causes of variability with regard to the Koskobilo assemblage and infestation patterns through time are discussed. Finally, a new ichnogenus and -species, Kanthyloma crusta, are erected to accommodate such swellings or embedment structures (bioclaustrations).

Evolution and the Theory of Games

Abstract: In the Hamadryas baboon, males are substantially larger than females. A troop of baboons is subdivided into a number of ‘one-male groups’, consisting of one adult male and one or more females with their young. The male prevents any of ‘his’ females from moving too far from him. Kummer (1971) performed the following experiment. Two males, A and B, previously unknown to each other, were placed in a large enclosure. Male A was free to move about the enclosure, but male B was shut in a small cage, from which he could observe A but not interfere. A female, unknown to both males, was then placed in the enclosure. Within 20 minutes male A had persuaded the female to accept his ownership. Male B was then released into the open enclosure. Instead of challenging male A , B avoided any contact, accepting A’s ownership.

A new species

Abstract: We redescribe the only previously known species of Myrsidea from bulbuls, M. pycnonoti Eichler. Sixteen new species are described; they and their type hosts are: M. phillipsi ex Pycnonotus goiavier goiavier (Scopoli), M. gieferi ex P. goiavier suluensis Mearns, M. kulpai ex P. flavescens Blyth, M. finlaysoni ex P. finlaysoni Strickland, M. kathleenae ex P. cafer (L.), M. warwicki ex Ixos philippinus (J. R. Forster), M. mcclurei ex Microscelis amaurotis (Temminck), M. zeylanici ex P. zeylanicus (Gmelin), M. plumosi ex P. plumosus Blyth, M. eutiloti ex P. eutilotus (Jardine and Selby), M. adamsae ex P. urostictus (Salvadori), M. ochracei ex Criniger ochraceus F. Moore, M. borbonici ex Hypsipetes borbonicus (J. R. Forster), M. johnsoni ex P. atriceps (Temminck), M. palmai ex C. ochraceus, and M. claytoni ex P. eutilotus. A key is provided for the identification of these 17 species.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain and of the Museum of Practical Geology: Mining records: Mineral statistics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland for 1853 and 1854

Abstract: THE Lizard district had long been famous as a field of geological research and controversy prior to the publication in 1912 of the Geological Survey Memoir on it, and on many of its petrological, structurah and stratigraphical problems there was scarcely a general consensus of opinion. This second edition, by the late Sir John Flett, one of the original authors, reveals him in the full maturity of his scientific judgment and mental vigour. It has been entirely rewritten after a re-examination of the area that, followed his retirement from the directorship of the Geological Survey in 1935. Many will visualize in these accounts of the cliffs and exposures "alongside the path leading from the hotel to the beach" that powerfully built figure with deliberate step and penetrating all-embracing eye.Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain England and Wales. Explanation of Sheet 359 : Geology of the Lizard and Meneage. By J. S. Flett and J. B. Hill. Second edition, by Sir John Smith Flett. Pp. xi+208+11 plates. (London : H. M. Stationery Office, 1946.) 2s. 6d. net.

An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology

Abstract: AN ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THEORETICAL ECOLOGY by Ted J. case Oxford University Press, 2000, 449 pp. An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology may seem an unusual book review subject for this journal. After all, our readers are mathematics and computer science teachers, not ecologists or biologists. Nevertheless, I believe that this book warrants examination by mathematics teachers for several reasons. First, An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology is well written. The ecology is clear, even for a novice, and the mathematics is presented thoroughly and meticulously. Second, I am convinced that we best connect with our non-mathematics majors when we show some understanding of how the mathematics we are teaching plays a role in other disciplines. Ecology is a particularly well-suited field for showing mathematics at work. Finally, mathematical ideas often are best presented in context. It has been my experience that consumers of mathematics (scientists, economists, etc.) frequently have unique points of view on mathematical concepts that may help mathematics students learn their subject. An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology has two main foci: population ecology and community ecology. The author, Ted Case, a professor of biology at the University of California-San Diego, is a respected population and community ecologist. Case has used the mathematical methods he teaches in this book in his own work with lizards, desert ants, and habitat fragmentation. He has a wonderful grasp of mathematics and the ability to make the formalism come alive. Population ecology is concerned with the growth and decay of populations of species. Case takes the student from simple exponential growth through the whole panoply of ecological modeling techniques that address spatial, temporal, and individual variations in birth and death rates, age structures, density-dependent population growth, life history trade-offs, reproductive value, natural selection, and aging. The mathematics involved in studying these topics is equally broad. The student will learn about difference and differential equations, log scales, Gaussian distributions, geometric and arithmetic means, variance, central limit theorem, matrices and vectors, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, limits, Ricker diagrams, stability, combinatorics, and probability. Supporters of the reform movement in algebra and calculus will be pleased to see that An Illustrated Guide to Theoretical Ecology takes the Rule of Three quite seriously and uses symbolic, numeric, and graphic views of functions to describe and explain. …