Brendan Matthew Anderson

Verified

Brendan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

Verified

Brendan verified their affiliation via an institutional email.

Learn more

• PhD, Geological Sciences
• Visiting Assistant Professor at Union College

Prospective and early-career paleontologists deserve an accurate assessment of employment opportunities in their chosen field of study. Drawing on a wide range of sources, we have produced an admittedly incomplete analysis of the current status and recent trends of permanent academic employment in the discipline. Obtaining more complete longitudina...

The Plio-Pleistocene turnover event in the western Atlantic following the closure of the Central American Seaway involved high rates of extinction for both gastropod and bivalve molluscs. This extinction was associated with declining nutrient conditions and has been presumed to be associated with a decrease in molluscan body size. Previous work whi...

Turritellid gastropods are aragonitic marine mollusks that are particularly abundant and widespread in the fossil record. With fast growth rates and a shallow coastal habitat, the oxygen isotopic composition of their shells has the potential to be an excellent recorder of ancient subannual climate variation. To date, tests of the reliability of oxy...

To build a just, equitable, and diverse academy, scientists and institutions must address systemic barriers that sex and gender minorities face. This Commentary summarizes (1) critical context informing the contemporary oppression of transgender people, (2) how this shapes extant research on sex and gender, and (3) actions to build an inclusive and...

Vermicularia Lamarck, 1799 is a clade of Miocene–Recent gastropods with an unusual uncoiled shell morphology. Like other “worm-snails,” they are taxonomically troublesome, and although earlier work affirmed the turritellid affinity of one species, their systematic relationships have not otherwise been previously examined. Here, we present a molecul...

Turritellid evolution represents a microcosm of large-scale patterns of molluscan evolution during the Cenozoic observed across the region. Additionally, isotopic studies of fast-growing turritellids and other gastropods have been important for documenting changing environment including the history of nutrient conditions associated with upwelling a...

Turritellid gastropods are among the most diverse, abundant, and frequently-occurring marine macrofossil groups of the past 100+ million years worldwide. From their apparent origin in central Tethys in the late Jurassic they spread across most of the world’s oceans by the Late Cretaceous. They suffered substantial extinction at the K-Pg but diversi...

The Plio-Pleistocene Pinecrest beds (Tamiami Fm.) of southern Florida rank amongst the most species-rich assemblages known from the Cenozoic macrofossil record. The tropical to subtropical fauna of the Pinecrest beds includes hundreds of mollusk species and subspecies (perhaps over 1,000), as well as diverse corals, bryozoans, and vertebrates. Some...

[Research note with no associated abstract]; The below is an abstract used for an associated conference presentation; Terminology for features associated with the coiling axis of gastropods is ambiguous and incomplete. Herein we describe the state of having no inner shell wall as a “hollow newel” construction, following the terminology applied to...

Spiral ribs are among the most common morphological features in mollusk shells and previous studies have shown them to have functional significance with expected evolutionary consequences. Many previous studies, however, have treated these features as potentially analogous across taxa, without examining whether they may have important constructiona...

Turritellid gastropods are abundant and diverse constituents of benthic marine assemblages of Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene age worldwide, including in the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains (CP). Their macroevolutionary and macroecological patterns across the K-Pg boundary, however, are paradoxical. More than 20 species are cumulatively r...

The Plio-Pleistocene regional mass extinction of molluscan fauna of Florida and the US Atlantic coastal plain was followed by a period of rapid origination, resulting in similar modern regional species richness. Predator and prey relationships were impacted by high extinction rates across all taxa. Previous studies have suggested that the extinctio...

The influence of functional traits on species survivorship has been evaluated in various contexts in both modern and ancient ecosystems, but an important direction for research is to integrate datasets that include both extinct and extant taxa. This approach can provide a more reliable understanding of the effects of functional traits on macroecolo...

Preliminary data indicate between the latest Pliocene and recent approximately 85% of bivalves and 90% of gastropod species in Florida and the Atlantic Coastal Plain became extinct, with high levels of origination resulting in similar total species richness in the region today. We expected this event may have impacted molluscan body size as body si...

Predicting the effects of anthropogenic climate change on Earth’s marine mollusk species is highly relevant, as many are critical human food resources and indispensable members of marine ecosystems. To predict which species will go extinct and which will survive, it is essential to understand the past climate species have experienced, as well as de...

The neogastropod clade Conoidea includes the familiar cone snails (Conidae) and 17 additional families, all but one of which (Cryptoconidae) are extant. There are over 5,000 extant species and 380 genera of Conoidea, all of which are venomous predators. Many conoideans other than Conidae and Terebridae (auger snails) are often called “turrids” and...

Non-acceptance of biological evolution is prevalent in U.S. adults, including in college students across all disciplines. Previous studies have shown that even among college biology majors, non-acceptance of evolution is highly correlated with the student religiosity, and primarily stems from the perception of conflict between concepts in biologica...

In examining Plio-pleistocene turritellids from the Atlantic coastal plain we recently discovered a previously undescribed character state where the inner shell wall appears to have not been formed. This state along with a C1B2A3 apical ontogeny pattern for spiral sculpture appears to characterize a clade of turritellids now extirpated from Florida...

Non-acceptance of biological evolution is prevalent in U.S. adults and is highly correlated with both religiosity and perceptions of conflict with religious beliefs. Instructors teaching evolution at religiously affiliated institutions may be uniquely situated to increase evolution acceptance by being perceived as culturally in-group by religious s...

Turritellid gastropods are among the most widespread, abundant, and diverse mollusks in Plio-Pleistocene deposits of the Atlantic coastal plain and Florida, with at least 46 species and subspecies described over almost two centuries. Yet the systematic status of these common fossil species and their phylogenetic relationships—to each other and to t...

Abstract.—Body size is an important trait with implications for energy use and ecology as well as generation time and evolutionary rates. Turritelline gastropods are widely distributed through geologic time and space, making them an excellent group for evaluating macroevolutionary patterns. To evaluate the pattern of body-size change in turritellin...

Non-acceptance of biological evolution is prevalent in U.S. adults, including in college students across all disciplines. Previous studies have shown that even among college biology majors, non-acceptance of evolution is highly correlated with the degree of religiosity of students, and primarily stems from the perception of conflict between concept...

Understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution are crucial components of science literacy, and widespread non-acceptance of evolution may have far reaching policy consequences for human health, environmental sustainability, and educational practices. The most prevalent indicator of non-acceptance of evolution among college students remains...

The hypothesis of punctuated equilibria (PE) has in important respects transitioned over the past half-century from unexpected by neontologists, to intuitively obvious and trivial, to its current status of widespread but partial acceptance and deep misunderstanding. While stasis is widely acknowledged, the overall theory is commonly described in bo...

Turritellid gastropods are some of the most diverse and abundant macrofauna of benthic marine assemblages from the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene worldwide, including the U.S. Gulf and Atlantic Coastal Plains (CP). Of the more than a dozen turritellid species previously recorded in the CP from each the Maastrichtian and Danian, none have been...

Holistic understanding of evolution within a clade requires not only knowledge of the clade’s phylogenetic history and paleoecological context, but also the mechanisms generating morphological structures. Molluscan shells constructed through accretion preserve a highly informative ontogenetic record. Egg size and larval feeding mode may be inferred...

Understanding and acceptance of the theory of evolution are crucial components of science literacy, and widespread non-acceptance of evolution may have far reaching policy consequences for human health, environmental sustainability, and educational practices. The most prevalent indicator of non-acceptance of evolution among college students remains...

The theory of evolution is a crucial component of science literacy and a key aspect of biological and geological education. Widespread non-acceptance of evolution may have far reaching policy consequences for human health, environmental sustainability, and educational practices. The most prevalent indicator of non-acceptance of evolution among coll...

Climate change portends significant harms to humans and biodiversity but public knowledge of relevant scientific information remains limited. As societal changes and investment are essential to addressing anthropogenic climate change, efforts to better promote both civic science literacy and public awareness of climate change impacts are urgently r...

Terminology for features associated with the coiling axis of gastropods is ambiguous and incomplete. Herein we describe the state of having no inner shell wall as a “hollow newel” construction, following the terminology applied to the analogous situation in spiral staircases lacking a central supporting column. For shells with the hollow newel axia...

Turritellid gastropods are both extremely common and diverse in assemblages from the Plio-Pleistocene to Recent of Florida and the US Atlantic coastal plain. These have long been of paleontological interest, but understanding has been hampered by lack of detailed modern phylogenetic analysis. Three clades of turritellid gastropods distinguished by...

Rates of speciation and extinction are often linked to many ecological factors, traits (emergent and nonemergent) such as environmental tolerance, body size, feeding type, and geographic range. Marine gastropods in particular have been used to examine the role of larval dispersal in speciation. However, relatively few studies have been conducted pl...

Abundant species are typically also viewed as ecologically dominant, and are frequently used to characterize the communities in which they live. Such characteristic assemblages may also be used as indicators of environmental conditions, such as relative stability. Fossil and modern turritelline gastropods are often the most abundant species in the...

Serial sclerochronologic analysis of mollusk shells can be used to simultaneously explore ecology and life history in paleoenvironmental context, making it an invaluable tool for evolutionary paleoecology. Sclerochronologic interest in the Turritellidae, primarily for paleoenvironmental reconstruction, has produced over 135 ontogenetically calibrat...

This study finds evidence for convergent evolution of the extreme parietal callus in caenogastropods. EPC is defined as a thickening of the spire and axial calluses that covers more than 50% of the ventral shell surface. We used SEM imaging to examine shell microstructure of gastropod primary shell, callus, and spines to characterize the microstruc...

We use scanning electron microscopy imaging to examine the shell microstructure of fossil and living species in five families of caenogastropods (Strombidae, Volutidae, Olividae, Pseudolividae, and Ancillariidae) to determine whether parallel or convergent evolution is responsible for the development of a unique caenogastropod trait, the extreme pa...

Large datasets have allowed biologists and paleontologists to investigate a multitude of ecological processes and have yielded important insights relevant to combating our current biodiversity crisis, but have frequently obfuscated the ways in which our limited understanding of ecology can influence our models. Our patchy understanding of organisma...

During the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO, 14.7–17.3 Ma), global temperatures were warmer than present, and similar to predicted temperatures for the coming century. Limited paleoclimate data exist from the tropics during this period, despite its potential as an analog for future climate conditions. This study presents new subannual stable isot...

Turritella abrupta (Miocene-Pliocene) is the largest species known from the diverse Jurassic-Recent gastropod family Turritellidae. In addition to having achieved long length and substantial width, the species produces shells of exceptional thickness, even before secondary shell deposition. We investigated the paleoecology of this species through a...

This study finds evidence for convergent evolution of the extreme parietal callus in caenogastropods. EPC is defined as a thickening of the spire and axial calluses that covers more than 50% of the ventral shell surface. We used SEM imaging to examine shell microstructure of gastropod primary shell, callus, and spines to characterize the microstruc...

Bill Nye had an ambitious goal – help save the world from apathy regarding climate change through education of young adults in a twenty-minute internet television program. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of this program as a tool for civic science literacy. We evaluated both knowledge outcomes, such awareness of impacts on society and the n...

Gastropod shell shapes are subject to numerous ecological selective pressures. While past investigators have successfully related some aspects of shape to relevant selective pressures, in many taxa the role of s ornamentation remains unclear. We studied the role of ornamentation on turritelline gastropods by experimentally analyzing the strength of...

This study investigated the homoplastic evolution of “extreme parietal callus.” EPC is a callus that covers more than 50% of the ventral shell surface and is often grown throughout ontogeny. EPC has been identified in some species within at least 8 gastropod families. We examined lateral cross sections of individuals drawn from four marine gastropo...

Turritellid gastropods are a common component of the marine macroinvertebrate fossil record from the Jurassic to Recent. Prominent aspects of turritellid shell morphology include whorl profile (the shape of each whorl and how it relates to the prior and subsequent whorls) and spiral sculpture (ornamentation on the whorl). Some features of shell mor...

The closure of the late Neogene interoceanic seaways between the Western Atlantic (WA) and Tropical Eastern Pacific (TEP)-commonly referred to as the Central American Seaway-significantly decreased nutrient supply in the WA compared to the TEP. In marine invertebrates, an increase in parental investment is expected to be selectively favored in nutr...

3-D printing offers the opportunity to test hypotheses of functional morphology in ways that fossil or modern materials cannot. 3-D printing replaces the need for destructive or potentially destructive analyses when form is the only subject of a hypothesis. Further, 3-D printed models are not restricted to exact replication of natural objects, allo...

Previous studies have shown that Phanerozoic marine organisms increased in size mostly by differential diversification of larger clades. This is not the same as support for Cope's Rule, which is an increase in size within a lineage, presumably driven by natural selection. Turritelline gastropods have been cited as an example in which maximum size i...

The closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS) around 3.5 Ma significantly altered the marine environment of the Western Atlantic (WA) in a variety of ways, altering salinity, temperature, productivity, and circulation patterns. The end of communication of nutrient-rich Pacific upwelling waters combined with decreased local upwelling due to chang...

Turritelline gastropods (sensu Marwick, 1957) are common components of many benthic marine assemblages of the Late Jurassic to Recent age worldwide. This study focuses on turritelline-dominated assemblages (TDAs), (defined as "macrofaunal assemblages in which turritelline gastropods 1) comprise either at least 20% of the total actual or estimated b...

The Miocene turritellid Turritella abrupta can exceed 20 cm in length, and is the widest, thickest-shelled turritellid species, fossil or Recent. This appears to have provided protection against drilling and peeling predation, as T. abrupta has higher rates of failed drilling predation attempts and breakage-repair than co-occurring turritellid spec...

Although generally considered rare in gastropods, septation has long been noted in turritellids, but functional hypotheses do not survive strong scrutiny. Here we outline a methodology for testing spandrel hypotheses and apply it to the problem of turritellid septa. We follow Gould in using “spandrel” as a term for all features that are nonadaptive...

During the Mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO), global mean temperatures were ~3°C above present, similar to predicted changes in temperature for the next century [1]. Currently, there is limited paleotemperature data from the tropics from the MMCO, and local variations in δ18Owater can obscure the use of the traditional oxygen isotope paleothermom...

Turritellid gastropods (family Turritellidae) are common components of many benthic marine assemblages of Late Jurassic to Recent age worldwide. This study focuses on turritellid-dominated assemblages (TDAs) from the La Meseta Formation on Seymour Island from the middle to late Eocene of Antarctica. TDAs are defined as “macrofaunal assemblages in w...

Civic scientific literacy (CSL), is defined as the ability of a citizen to find, make sense of, and use information about science or technology to engage in a public discussion of policy choices involving science or technology. A recent Pew Research Center study found that the percent of American adults who believe that the Earth is getting warmer...

We used the development of the “extreme parietal callus” (EPC), defined here as callus which covers more than 50% of the ventral shell surface, to investigate gastropod homoplasy by parallel and convergent evolution while testing possible ecological functions of this feature. Examination of EPC macro and microstructure suggests convergent evolution...

The Vermiculariinae is a long-recognized Miocene-Recent clade of turritellid gastropods with unusual uncoiled shell morphology. Modern representatives include Callostracum gracile and at least 5 species of Vermicularia: V. bathyalis, V. fargoi, V. knorrii, V. pellucida, and V. spirata. Fossil species include V. milleti, V. recta, V. weberi, V. wood...

The Middle Miocene was a relatively stable warm period and the last event of major warming in the long-lasting Cenozoic cooling trend. Ocean and continental temperatures were warmer than present and atmosphere CO2 estimations indicate concentrations at 400-600 ppm. This is a critical period as it may mirror future climate trends, but climate models...

The Miocene turritellid Turritella abrupta (synonyms including T. , bosei, fredeai, many specimens assigned to robusta, and potentially ocoyana) can exceed 20 cm in length, and is also among the thickest-shelled turritellid species, fossil or Recent. This thick shell appears to confer protection against drilling and peeling predators, as the specie...

Studies on drilling predation in the fossil record often analyze site stereotypy and drilling frequency. Postmortem prey shell breakage can create particular problems for these analyses, especially in high-spired gastropods (e.g., normalizing drill hole location and estimating the number of individuals in a sample). As a result, many previous studi...

Turritelline-dominated assemblages (TDAs) frequently occur in the middle-late Miocene Gatun Formation, and are not uncommon features in the broader fossil record. By gaining a better understanding of the paleoenvironment and taphonomic processes leading to their formation we can gain insight into the conditions in the Western Atlantic (WA) during t...

Turritelline gastropods are typically semi-infaunal, spending the majority of their lives in sediment with only their apertures exposed at the sediment-water interface. Species vary in both whorl profile and shell sculpture, which consists of varying numbers of fine to pronounced spiral chords, but the effect of these variations on sediment retenti...

The Neogene sedimentary section of the Cocinetas Basin in northern Colombia preserves a rich record of marine invertebrates, especially mollusks. Molluscan fossils are highly diverse and often well preserved, offering a window into the rapidly changing paleoenvironments and biogeography of northern South America. The basal unit in the Neogene succe...

Although septa are generally considered absent or rare in gastropods, septation has long been noted in some groups, including turritellids, and some Paleozoic forms. Yet the overall occurrence of septa in gastropods has apparently never been systematically analyzed. We examined the phylogenetic distribution of septation in gastropods and find that...

Vermicularia are turritellid gastropods with an uncoiled vermiform shape that represents a significant departure from the typical, tightly coiled, turritelline morphology, likely as a means of facilitating rapid upward growth (Gould, 1969). The vermiform habit represents such a substantial change that it has previously been recognized at the genus...

Studies on drilling predation often analyze site stereotypy and drilling frequency. However, incomplete specimens create particular problems for these analyses. Without a method of normalizing drill hole location on incomplete shells, it is difficult to study site stereotypy. Additionally, in order to calculate drilling frequency, a method is neede...

While septa are observed in many Paleozoic gastropod groups, they are often considered rare in modern gastropods. Notable exceptions to this statement in the literature include Turritellidae, Vermetidae, and decollate terrestrial snails. (Septa of Turritella communis were even compared with those found in Nautilus in Lyell’s Elements of Geology (18...

Turritellines are among the most abundant and widespread marine gastropod clades and have a fossil record extending into the early Cretaceous. High abundance assemblages of turritellines are also frequent occurrences in post-Cretaceous marine packages. Turritelline-dominated assemblages (TDAs) were defined by Allmon (2007) as macrofaunal assemblage...

Turritelline gastropods (family Turritellidae, subfamily Turritellinae) are among the most abundant, diverse, and frequently occurring members of Neogene marine faunas in the western Atlantic region. In Florida, the Caribbean, and Central America, more than 60 fossil species and subspecies have been described. At least three species live there toda...

Discovery of a fossil (30-35 million-year-old) urolith from Early Oligocene deposits in northeastern Colorado provides the earliest evidence for the antiquity of bladder stones. These are spherical objects with a layered phosphatic structure and a hollow center. Each layer is composed of parallel crystals oriented perpendicular to the surface. Macr...

Deposits where non-mineralized tissues are preserved, known as Konservat-Lagerstӓtten, offer important insights into paleobiology and paleodiversity. Since Alison and Briggs (1993) evaluated the secular distribution of these deposits numerous new localities have been discovered. Here a new dataset is presented containing more than 85 marine deposit...

Relative to epicontinental seas, shallow, open-ocean settings are underrepresented in the Paleozoic record, and it is possible that higher taxa associated with these environments that appeared to diversify in the post-Paleozoic may have unpreserved Paleozoic histories. As an initial test of this possibility, we evaluated the statistical affinity fo...

Ever since Sepkoski's classic depictions of Phanerozoic marine diversity taxa it has been appreciated that the richness of the Modern evolutionary fauna was limited in the Paleozoic Era, and showed a dramatic increase in the postPaleozoic. However, because of a possible tendency of elements of the Modern Fauna to occur in open-ocean facing settings...