College
COAS
Department
Physics
Rank
Associate Lecturer
Type of Work
Journal Article
Publication Information
Bulletin of the Florida Museum of Natural History, vol. 57, no. 2, pp.77-236. 2019
Description of Work
Although South Carolina has not typically been considered a state yielding a wealth of vertebrate paleontological resources, study of its fossils, particularly those from the famous “Ashley River phosphate beds” near Charleston, played a significant role in the early history of vertebrate paleontology as a scientific discipline in North America. Long overshadowed by the exceptionally rich Cenozoic record from Florida, renewed efforts in South Carolina over the last three decades have resulted in a wealth of new data from sites that rival, and in some cases surpass, any others along the US Atlantic Coastal Plain. With increasing study of these new finds over the last few decades came the realization that the weak link in a thorough understanding of the state’s vertebrate paleontology was the lack of a modern, high-resolution, temporal framework. Our attempt in this report has been to provide, for the first time, in a single body of literature, (1) a statewide review of all the vertebrate fossil-bearing geologic units, (2) an update and refinement of their temporal placement based on correlation with the most recent, astronomically-tuned marine oxygen isotope stages and global Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale, as well as with comparably aged sites in Florida, (3) the consequent development of a refined chronostratigraphic context for the state’s vertebrate fossil record, (4) a comprehensive review of that record, with the inclusion of several species previously unknown from the state (or in some cases from the Southeastern US), plus (5) revised taxonomic assessment of some previously reported species.
Included in
Cenozoic Vertebrate Biostratigraphy of South Carolina, USA, and Additions to the Fauna
Although South Carolina has not typically been considered a state yielding a wealth of vertebrate paleontological resources, study of its fossils, particularly those from the famous “Ashley River phosphate beds” near Charleston, played a significant role in the early history of vertebrate paleontology as a scientific discipline in North America. Long overshadowed by the exceptionally rich Cenozoic record from Florida, renewed efforts in South Carolina over the last three decades have resulted in a wealth of new data from sites that rival, and in some cases surpass, any others along the US Atlantic Coastal Plain. With increasing study of these new finds over the last few decades came the realization that the weak link in a thorough understanding of the state’s vertebrate paleontology was the lack of a modern, high-resolution, temporal framework. Our attempt in this report has been to provide, for the first time, in a single body of literature, (1) a statewide review of all the vertebrate fossil-bearing geologic units, (2) an update and refinement of their temporal placement based on correlation with the most recent, astronomically-tuned marine oxygen isotope stages and global Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale, as well as with comparably aged sites in Florida, (3) the consequent development of a refined chronostratigraphic context for the state’s vertebrate fossil record, (4) a comprehensive review of that record, with the inclusion of several species previously unknown from the state (or in some cases from the Southeastern US), plus (5) revised taxonomic assessment of some previously reported species.
Biographical Statement
Dr. Barry Albright currently teaches Earth Science courses in the Department of Physics at the University of North Florida. He received his BS in oceanography from Florida Institute of Technology, a Masters in geology/paleontology from Louisiana State University, and the PhD in geology/paleontology from the University of California, Riverside. As a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Florida/Florida Museum of Natural History, he worked in the John Day Valley of Oregon to help develop a high resolution temporal framework for the world-class record of mammal fossils so prominently displayed there. After his post-doc and prior to his employment at UNF, Dr. Albright was Curator of Geology and Paleontology at the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. It was over those years that he began research in southern Utah where he returns each summer to continue his field work and studies on a variety of aspects of paleontology and geology. His research has also taken him to Antarctica, Patagonia, and Mongolia, and he has additional current projects in California, Arizona, and South Carolina. Prior to Dr. Albright’s academic life, he worked in the Caribbean as a yacht captain and in Alaska as a King Crab fisherman.