Neil Tabor
UPI: Study finds Jurassic ecosystems like today’s
News wire UPI covered the research of SMU paleontologist Timothy S. Myers for the news site’s science section.
Myers’ latest study found Jurassic ecosystems were similar to modern: Animals flourish among lush plants. The study set out to discover whether that same relationship held true 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Continue reading
Red Orbit: Climate And Biota Have Been Ecologically Connected For Millions Of Years
Journalist Raysehll Clapper for redOrbit.com covered the research of SMU paleontologist Timothy S. Myers for the news web site’s Science section.
Myers’ latest study found Jurassic ecosystems were similar to modern: Animals flourish among lush plants. The study set out to discover whether that same relationship held true 150 million years ago during the Late Jurassic when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Continue reading
Study finds Jurassic ecosystems were similar to modern: Animals flourish among lush plants
In modern ecosystems, animals flourish amid lush vegetation. An SMU study examines whether that same relationship held true 150 million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
“The assumption has been that ancient ecosystems worked just like our modern ecosystems,” says SMU paleontologist Timothy S. Myers. “We wanted to see if this was, in fact, the case.” Continue reading
SMU contributes fossils, expertise to new Perot Museum in ongoing scientific collaboration
From dinosaurs to sea turtles, and from technical assistance to advisory roles, SMU faculty and students, the SMU Shuler Museum, and the SMU Innovation Gymnasium, team with the nation’s new premier museum of nature and science.
Fossils on loan by SMU to the new Perot Museum of Nature and Science include those of animals from an ancient sea that once covered Dallas. Continue reading
Posted in Culture, Society & Family, Earth & Climate, Fossils & Ruins, Learning & Education, Plants & Animals, Researcher news, Slideshows
Tagged Anthony Fiorillo, Bonnie F. Jacobs, Christopher Strganac, Dale A. Winkler, Diana Vineyard, Ellis W. Shuler, Institute for the Study of Earth and Man, James E. Brooks, Louis L. Jacobs, Michael J. Polcyn, Neil Tabor, Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Shuler Museum of Paleontology, Thomas L. Adams
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SMU News: 2012 Research Day at Southern Methodist University
SMU News covered the annual 2012 Research Day on Feb. 10 where SMU graduate and undergraduate students presented results of their research studies.
Sponsored by SMU’s Office of Research and Graduate Studies, the event sought to foster communication between students in different programs, give students the opportunity to present their work in formats they will use as professionals, and to share with the SMU community and others the outstanding research being done at the University.
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Posted in Researcher news, SMU In The News, Student researchers, Videos
Tagged Alicia E. Meuret, George W. Holden, Grant Holland, Holly Stovall, Jeff Tian, Liguo Huang, Lyle School of Engineering, Lynne Stokes, Mary Milleson, Neil Tabor, Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences, Ruili Geng, SMU Department of Psychology, SMU Department of Statistical Science, Vanessa Rae Stevens
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Four outstanding SMU researchers named SMU’s 2011 Ford Research Fellows
Four outstanding SMU researchers have been named as the University’s 2011 Ford Research Fellows. This year’s recipients are Johan Elverskog, Religious Studies, Dedman College; Thomas Hagstrom, Mathematics, Dedman College; Neil Tabor, Earth Sciences, Dedman College; and Sze-kar Wan, New Testament, Perkins School of Theology.
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Ethiopia 27 million years ago had higher rainfall, warmer soil
Thirty million years ago, before Ethiopia’s mountainous highlands split and the Great Rift Valley formed, the tropical zone had warmer soil temperatures, higher rainfall and different atmospheric circulation patterns than it does today, according to new research of fossil soils found in the central African nation.
Neil J. Tabor, associate professor of Earth Sciences at SMU and an expert in sedimentology and isotope geochemistry, calculated past climate using oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in minerals from fossil soils discovered in the highlands of northwest Ethiopia. The highlands represent the bulk of the mountains on the African continent.
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Ethiopian fossils define prehistoric ecosystems, human evolution, climate change
For paleobotanist Bonnie Jacobs standing atop a mountain in the highlands of northwest Ethiopia, it’s as if she can see forever — or at least as far back as 30 million years ago.
Jacobs is part of an international team of researchers hunting scientific clues to Africa’s prehistoric ecosystems.
The researchers are among the first to combine independent lines of evidence from various fossil and geochemical sources to reconstruct the prehistoric climate, landscape and ecosystems of Ethiopia in particular, and tropical Africa in general for the time interval from 65 million years ago — when dinosaurs went extinct, to about 8 million years ago — when apes split from humans.
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Ethiopian fossils to shed light on climate change
A team of researchers led by paleobotanist Bonnie Jacobs and sedimentologist Neil Tabor of Southern Methodist University returned to northwestern Ethiopia in late December 2007 to spend almost a month collecting additional plant fossils and gaining a more thorough understanding of their geological context.
In December 2006, the team collected more than 600 plant fossils, which are on loan for study in labs at SMU’s Roy M. Huffington Department of Earth Sciences in Dedman College. All told, the team has documented more than 1,500 plant fossils, hundreds of vertebrate fossils and numerous examples of ancient soils. This year they widen their search to better understand the geology, landscape, plant and animal communities, and climate of Chilga, Ethiopia, 28 million years ago.