Terry A Gates

North Carolina State University | NCSU · Department of Biological Sciences

Research integrated into higher education curricula has been shown by numerous studies to be beneficial to undergraduate students. Citizen science provides an alternative to research performed in a lab and is gaining traction as a good choice for integration into classes. The Undergraduate Student Experiences in Citizen Science (USE Cit Sci) resear...

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in the Spring of 2020, North Carolina (NC) public schools moved to distance education in which all students attended classes on video conferencing programs. During this time, NC State University faculty offered virtual guest talks to NC K-12 students. Eighty-eight faculty from three NC State colleges vol...

Intensifying macrovertebrate reconnaissance together with refined age-dating of mid-Cretaceous assemblages in recent decades is producing a more nuanced understanding of the impact of the Cretaceous Thermal Maximum on terrestrial ecosystems. Here we report discovery of a new early-diverging ornithopod, Iani smithi gen. et sp. nov., from the Cenoman...

The geographic ranges in which species live is a function of many factors underlying ecological and evolutionary contingencies. Observing the geographic range of an individual species provides valuable information about these historical contingencies for a lineage, determining the distribution of many distantly related species in tandem provides in...

We describe the sedimentology, geochronology, and geochemistry of the Early Cretaceus Sao Khua Formation of the Khorat Basin, northeastern Thailand, and report a temporal range adjustment for its dinosaurian assemblage. Facies analysis and architectural studies reveal that sedimentation occurred within a floodplain setting fed by large meandering b...

Citizen science involves the public in science to investigate research questions. Although citizen science facilitates learning in informal educational settings, little is known about its use or effects in postsecondary (college or university) settings. Using a literature review and a survey, we describe how and why citizen science is being used in...

Although participation in citizen science has been hypothesized to have many educational benefits for undergraduates, little work has been published on this topic. We asked whether biology content knowledge and increased undergraduate engagement could be attained through involvement in citizen science. Across three universities, we included Caterpi...

Science literacy, including intrinsic motivation to participate in science outside of STEM careers, is an important goal of introductory biology courses aimed at non-majors. Citizen science may be able to support science literacy and science participation goals in such classes by providing authentic research opportunities matched to course content...

Brachylophosaurini is a clade of hadrosaurid dinosaurs from the Campanian of western North America. Although well-known from northern localities in Montana and Alberta, including abundant material of Brachylophosaurus canadensis and Maiasaura peeblesorum and the holotypes of Acristavus gagslarsoni and Probrachylophosaurus bergei , material from sou...

The Upper Cretaceous Western Interior Basin of North America provides a unique laboratory for constraining the effects of spatial climate patterns on the macroevolution and spatiotemporal distribution of biological communities across geologic timescales. Previous studies suggested that Western Interior Basin terrestrial ecosystems were divided into...

A new ichnospecies, Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp., is described from multiple locations in basal sand-filled coastal plain distributary channels of the Turonian (Upper Cretaceous) Ferron Sandstone (central Utah). Glossifungites gingrasi n. isp. is attributed to the ichnogenus Glossifungites based on the presence of scratch imprints, passive fill,...

For nearly 60 years, skulls of Parasaurolophus species have been differentiated primarily on the basis of crest shape rather than on unique morphologic characters of other cranial elements. Complicating matters is the fact that crests dramatically change shape throughout ontogeny. Without a complete growth series, it has become difficult to assess...

Diagnostic dinosaur fossils of the southeastern United States are rare discoveries, and even more precious are those fossils that preserve a large portion of a skeleton. Sixty years ago, the dinosaur Lophorhothon atopus was described from Upper Cretaceous sediments of Alabama. It then represented the oldest, most complete, dinosaur in the southeast...

To date, eco-evolutionary dynamics in the ascent of tyrannosauroids to top predator roles have been obscured by a 70-million-year gap in the North American (NA) record. Here we report discovery of the oldest Cretaceous NA tyrannosauroid, extending the lineage by ~15 million years. The new taxon—Moros intrepidus gen. et sp. nov.—is represented by a...

Cretaceous aquatic ecosystems were amazingly diverse, containing most clades of extant aquatic vertebrates as well as an array of sharks and rays not present today. Here we report on the chondrichthyan fauna from the late Maastrichtian site that yielded the Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton FMNH PF 2081 (“SUE”). Significant among the recovered fauna is an...

The vertebrate fauna of the Late Cretaceous Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation has been studied for nearly three decades, yet the fossil-rich unit continues to produce new information about life in western North America approximately 97 million years ago. Here we report on the composition of the Cliffs of Insanity (COI) microverteb...

We describe a new iguanodontian ornithopod, Choyrodon barsboldi gen. et sp. nov. from the Albian-aged Khuren Dukh Formation of Mongolia based on several partial skeletons interpreted to represent a subadult growth stage based on osteohistological features. This new taxon is diagnosed by many autapomorphies of the maxilla, nasal, lacrimal, opisthoti...

Horizontal and inclined U-shaped trace fossils are commonly associated with the Cruziana and Glossifungites ichnofacies, but have rarely been described as a component of the Teredolites ichnofacies (xylic substrates). This study provides several examples of morphologies of Glossifungites saxicava from the Campanian Sunnyside Coal (Blackhawk Formati...

Crocodyliforms serve as important taphonomic agents, accumulating and modifying vertebrate remains. Previousdiscussions of Mesozoic crocodyliform feeding in terrestrial and riverine ecosystems have often focused on larger taxa and their interactions with equally large dinosaurian prey. However, recent evidence suggests that the impact of smaller cr...

Background Eolambia caroljonesa is the most abundant dinosaur in the lower Cenomanian Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation of Utah, and one of the most completely known non-hadrosaurid iguanodontians from North America. In addition to the large holotype and paratype partial skulls, copious remains of skeletally immature individuals,...

Character list, list of supplemental references, and list of synapomorphies. List of morphological characters and supplemental references used in the phylogenetic analysis, and list of synapomorphies. (DOC)

Nexus file formatted for TNT. Nexus file used in the phylogenetic analysis. (TXT)

List of specimens examined. Iguanodontian specimens examined firsthand. (XLS)

Table of measurements. Measurements of select anatomical features of FMNH PR 3847. (DOC)

Data matrix. Character-taxon matrix used in the phylogenetic analysis. (XLS)

Exaggerated cranial structures such as crests and horns, hereafter referred to collectively as ornaments, are pervasive across animal species. These structures perform vital roles in visual communication and physical interactions within and between species. Yet the origin and influence of ornamentation on speciation and ecology across macroevolutio...

Supplementary Figure 1, Supplementary Tables 1-6, Supplementary Discussion, Supplementary Methods, Supplementary References

All model results from the OU analysis with the root not estimated, but instead taken from the status distribution.

All model results from the OU analysis with the root estimated.

Definitive therizinosaurid cranial materials are exceptionally rare, represented solely by an isolated braincase and tooth in the North American taxon Nothronychus mckinleyi , the remarkably complete skull of the Asian taxon Erlikosaurus andrewsi , and the lower hemimandibles of Segnosaurus galbinensis . To date, comprehensive descriptions of the f...

More species of nodosaurid ankylosaurians than ankylosaurid ankylosaurians have been found in marine sediments, and some previous quantitative studies of global dinosaur occurrences provide support for an association between nodosaurids and marine depositional environments. We compiled a dataset of global ankylosaurian occurrences and found that th...

A new hadrosaurid is described from the Upper Cretaceous Neslen Formation of central Utah. Rhinorex condrupus gen. et sp. nov. is diagnosed on the basis of two unique traits, a hook-shaped projection of the nasal anteroventral process and dorsal projection of the posteroventral process of the premaxilla, and is further differentiated from other had...

The Wahweap Formation preserves the most di-verse middle Campanian terrestrial fauna in North America, based largely on information gained by the study of micro-vertebrate fossils collected by wet screen washing. These studies have documented a minimum of fi ve freshwater shark species, three freshwater ray species, eight bony fi sh species, 11 amp...

Ornithopod dinosaurs were bipedal, herbivorous dinosaurs represented in the Late Cretaceous of North Amer-ica by basal ornithopods ("hypsilophodontids") and a clade of derived iguanodontians containing, in part, hadrosaurids. Recent research focused on the Cretaceous macrovertebrates of Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument and sur-rounding a...

A bs t r ac t Hadrosaurid ornithopods from the early to middle Campan-ian are rare in North America, but the Wahweap Formation of southern Utah yields specimens that are increasing the known diversity of hadrosaurids from this poorly understood time period. A new genus and species of lambeosaurine had-rosaurid, Adelolophus hutchisoni, is described...

Isolated teeth from vertebrate microfossil localities often provide unique information on the biodiversity of ancient ecosystems that might otherwise remain unrecognized. Microfossil sampling is a particularly valuable tool for documenting taxa that are poorly represented in macrofossil surveys due to small body size, fragile skeletal structure, or...

Crocodyliforms serve as important taphonomic agents, accumulating and modifying vertebrate remains. Previous discussions of Mesozoic crocodyliform feeding in terrestrial and riverine ecosystems have often focused on larger taxa and their interactions with equally large dinosaurian prey. However, recent evidence suggests that the impact of smaller c...

Prior studies of Mesozoic biodiversity document a diversity peak for dinosaur species in the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, yet have failed to provide explicit causal mechanisms. We provide evidence that a marked increase in North American dinosaur biodiversity can be attributed to dynamic orogenic episodes within the Western Interior Basi...

Data output files from SymmeTREE analysis of ceratopsid and hadrosaurid phylogenies. (XLSX)

A new hadrosaurid dinosaur, Acristavus gagslarsoni, is here named on the basis of several autapomorphic characteristics of the frontal, postorbital, and dentary. Acristavus is a member of the newly erected clade Brachylophosaurini, which along with its other members, Brachylophosaurus and Maiasaura, constitutes the earliest hadrosaurine hadrosaurid...

Previous biogeographic studies of late Cretaceous (late Campanian) vertebrate faunas in the Western Interior Basin (WIB) of North America have suggested the presence of faunal and floral provincialism, characterized by distinct northern and southern ‘biomes.’ However, the “provincialism hypothesis” has been questioned based largely on the contentio...

The results of Barnum Brown's 1937 expedition to the Almond Formation of Wyoming consisted of two unidentified ceratopsian skulls and a partial hadrosaurid specimen (AMNH 3651). The hadrosaurid is here attributed to the Maastrichtian genus Saurolophus, verifying previous biostratigraphic correlations of this formation using ammonite zones. Fossilif...

Stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios were measured for carbonate in samples of hadrosaurid tooth enamel and dentine, and gar scale ganoine and dentine from five geologically “contemporaneous“ (two-million-year resolution) and geographically distant late Campanian formations (Two Medicine, Dinosaur Park, Judith River, Kaiparowits, and Fruitland)...

A new lambeosaurine hadrosaurid, Velafrons coahuilensis, is described as the first lambeosaurine from the Cerro del Pueblo Formation of Coahuila, Mexico, and the first lambeosaurine genus to be named from North America in more than 70 years. Although the holotype specimen is a juvenile individual—as evidenced by its incomplete crest development and...

A new species of the hadrosaurine hadrosaurid Gryposaurus was discovered in the late Campanian Kaiparowits Formation of southern Utah. Gryposaurus monumentensis, sp. nov. is distinguished from other Gryposaurus species by possessing a more robust skull, enlarged clover-shaped prongs on the predentary oral margin, an anteroposteriorly narrow infrate...

Duck-billed dinosaurs, or hadrosaurs, rank among the most unique, specialized, and successful dinosaur groups. They are known from localities throughout the Northern Hemisphere, predominately in North America and Asia, as well as from South America and Antarctica. During their Cretaceous tenure, hadrosaurs diversified into an array of crested and n...

The Kaiparowits Basin Project was initiated in 2000 in order to explore Upper Cretaceous deposits preserved within Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In particular, emphasis has been placed on excavation and study of macrovertebrates from two Campanian-aged units—the Kaiparowits and Wahweap formations. Results to date have been abundant a...

In 2001, a large hadrosaurine preserving extensive cranial and post-cranial material (PASAC-1) was discovered in an excavation in the Sabinas Basin near the town of Sabinas, Coahuila, Mexico. The specimen can be compared to the anterior portion of a large hadrosaurid skull (IGM 6685) recovered from the central Parras Basin in 1987. Both specimens a...

We redescribe and illustrate the completely prepared holotype skull of Anasazisaurus horneri, a hadrosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Kirtlandian, Campanian) Kirtland Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico. The validity of Anasazisaurus horneri rests on its distinctive, posteriorly-projecting nasal crest, which distinguishes it from other...

A comprehensive taphonomic analysis has yielded a novel interpretation for one of the most famous dinosaur quarries in the world. The Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry (CLDQ) traditionally has been interpreted as an attritional predator trap. This scenario is based largely on a remarkable 3:1 predator:prey ratio, dominated by the remains of the thero...