Mark McMenamin
Encyclopedia
Mark McMenamin is a tenured professor of geology
at Mount Holyoke College
. His research is primarily focused on paleontology, particularly the Ediacaran biota.
He is the author of several books, most recently The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life and Science 101: Geology. He is credited with co-naming several geological formations in Mexico, describing several new fossil genera and species, and naming the Precambrian supercontinent Rodinia
. The Cambrian archeocyathid species Markocyathus clementensis was named in his honor in 1989.
showed that trilobite
s belonging to the Agnostida
may have had a predatory lifestyle. McMenamin's research on the Phoenician world map helped to inspire Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos's 2007 novel The Navigator, and his Garden of Ediacara theory helped to inspire Greg Bear's novel Vitals.
fossils (belonging to the genus Shonisaurus) placed together at Berlin–Ichthyosaur State Park may represent evidence of a gigantic cephalopod or Triassic Kraken
that killed the ichthyosaurs and intentionally arranged their bones in the unusual pattern seen at the site.
Opponents have challenged the theory as too far-fetched to be credible. PZ Myers
believes that the rows of vertebral discs may simply be a result of the ichthyosaurs having fallen to one side or the other after death and rotting in that position, while Ryosuke Motani, a paleontologist at the University of California, Davis, has alternately proposed that the bones may have been moved together by ocean currents because of their circular shape. McMenamin has dismissed both of these concerns as not being in accord with either the sequence of bone placement or the hydrodynamics of the site.
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
at Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...
. His research is primarily focused on paleontology, particularly the Ediacaran biota.
He is the author of several books, most recently The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life and Science 101: Geology. He is credited with co-naming several geological formations in Mexico, describing several new fossil genera and species, and naming the Precambrian supercontinent Rodinia
Rodinia
In geology, Rodinia is the name of a supercontinent, a continent which contained most or all of Earth's landmass. According to plate tectonic reconstructions, Rodinia existed between 1.1 billion and 750 million years ago, in the Neoproterozoic era...
. The Cambrian archeocyathid species Markocyathus clementensis was named in his honor in 1989.
Research and theories
McMenamin's work on the paleoecology of the Cambrian explosionCambrian explosion
The Cambrian explosion or Cambrian radiation was the relatively rapid appearance, around , of most major phyla, as demonstrated in the fossil record, accompanied by major diversification of other organisms, including animals, phytoplankton, and calcimicrobes...
showed that trilobite
Trilobite
Trilobites are a well-known fossil group of extinct marine arthropods that form the class Trilobita. The first appearance of trilobites in the fossil record defines the base of the Atdabanian stage of the Early Cambrian period , and they flourished throughout the lower Paleozoic era before...
s belonging to the Agnostida
Agnostida
Agnostida is an order of arthropod which first developed near the end of the Early Cambrian period and thrived during the Middle Cambrian. They are present in the lower Cambrian fossil record along with trilobites from the Redlichiida, Corynexochida, and Ptychopariida orders...
may have had a predatory lifestyle. McMenamin's research on the Phoenician world map helped to inspire Clive Cussler and Paul Kemprecos's 2007 novel The Navigator, and his Garden of Ediacara theory helped to inspire Greg Bear's novel Vitals.
Prehistoric "kraken"
Mark McMenamin and Dianna Schulte McMenamin argued that a formation of multiple ichthyosaurIchthyosaur
Ichthyosaurs were giant marine reptiles that resembled fish and dolphins...
fossils (belonging to the genus Shonisaurus) placed together at Berlin–Ichthyosaur State Park may represent evidence of a gigantic cephalopod or Triassic Kraken
Triassic Kraken
The Triassic Kraken is a gigantic ancient cephalopod hypothesized to be responsible for the deaths of Triassic ichthyosaurs belonging the the genus Shonisaurus preserved at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada...
that killed the ichthyosaurs and intentionally arranged their bones in the unusual pattern seen at the site.
Opponents have challenged the theory as too far-fetched to be credible. PZ Myers
PZ Myers
Paul Zachary "PZ" Myers is an American biology professor at the University of Minnesota Morris and the author of the Pharyngula science blog. He is currently an associate professor of biology at UMM, works with zebrafish in the field of evolutionary developmental biology , and also cultivates an...
believes that the rows of vertebral discs may simply be a result of the ichthyosaurs having fallen to one side or the other after death and rotting in that position, while Ryosuke Motani, a paleontologist at the University of California, Davis, has alternately proposed that the bones may have been moved together by ocean currents because of their circular shape. McMenamin has dismissed both of these concerns as not being in accord with either the sequence of bone placement or the hydrodynamics of the site.