Mark McMenamin

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Mark McMenamin
Residence South Hadley, Massachusetts
Citizenship United States
Fields Geology, Paleontology
Institutions Mount Holyoke College[1]
Alma mater University of California, Santa Barbara, Ph.D.
Stanford University, B.S.[1]
Known for Evolution and history of life; Ediacaran fossils; Hypersea theory; Proterozoic supercontinent Rodinia[1]
Notable awards Presidential Young Investigator Award, Sigma Xi National Lecturer, 2011 Irish Education 100 Award [1][2]

Mark A. S. McMenamin is a tenured professor of geology at Mount Holyoke College in the Department of Geology and Geography. He has made innovative contributions to the field of paleontology, particularly the Ediacaran biota.

McMenamin has articulated novel but not widely accepted solutions to challenging problems associated with study of the history of life and the history of geographic exploration.[3] His research has been criticized by some paleontologists as being narrative rather evidence driven.

He is the author of several books, most recently The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life one of the only popular accounts of research on the Ediacaran biota, 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.

Research and theories

McMenamin's work on the paleoecology of the Cambrian explosion controversially argued that the tiny planktonic trilobites belonging to the Agnostida may have had a predatory lifestyle.[4]

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.

Origins of Complex Life

In 1995 McMenamin led a field expedition to Sonora, Mexico, that discovered fossils (585 million years old) which McMenamin argued belonged to a diverse community of early animals and Ediacaran biota.[5] The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America where it was reviewed by Ediacaran expert James G. Gehling. In 2011, McMenamin reported the discovery of the oldest known adult animal fossils, Proterozoic chitons from the Clemente Formation, northwestern Sonora, Mexico.[6] This discovery has not yet been published in a scientific journal following peer review. These fossils McMenamin argued were associated with the earliest animal trace fossils, the first known arthropod tracks, and the earliest evidence in the fossil record for a predation event,.[7] The latter interpretation has not been widely accepted by a other paleontologists. Further up in this same stratigraphic sequence, McMenamin also discovered and named the early shelly fossil Sinotubulites cienegensis, a fossil that allowed the first confident Proterozoic biostratigraphic correlation between Asia and the Americas.[8] In Lower Cambrian strata higher in the stratigraphic sequence, McMenamin also discovered important stem group brachiopods belonging to the genus Mickwitzia.[9] During a Mount Holyoke College field trip to Death Valley, California, McMenamin and his co-authors found evidence indicating that the Proterozoic shelly fossil Qinella survived the Proterozoic-Cambrian boundary.[10]

Hypersea

In an attempt to explain the unprecedented and rapid spread of vegetation over dry land surfaces during the middle Paleozoic, Mark McMenamin and Dianna L. Schulte McMenamin proposed Hypersea Theory.[11] Hypersea is a geophysiological entity consisting of eukaryotic organisms on land and their symbionts. By means of a process known as hypermarine upwelling, the expansion of Hypersea led to a dramatic increase in global species diversity and a one hundred-fold increase in global biomass.[12]

Critique of Neodarwinism

Mark McMenamin has repeatedly criticized conventional Neodarwinian theory as inadequate to the task of explaining the evolutionary process. Joining with Lynn Margulis and the Russian symbiogeneticists, McMenamin has emphasized the importance of symbiogenesis theory as one means of addressing the gap in our understanding of macroevolutionary change in conventional Neodarwinian terms.[13] In his 1998 book "The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the First Complex Life", McMenamin argued that a Teilhardian rather than Neodarwinian approach is far better for trying to understand the evolution of the enigmatic Ediacara biota. In subsequent work, McMenamin emphasized the strength of the Teilhardian approach in comparison to alternate views [14] and has highlighted what he calls the collapse of Neodarwinian theory.[15] McMenamin argues that Neodarwinian gradualism is no mere straw man, but rather continues to influence the work of top paleontologists.[16]

Triassic Kraken

Mark McMenamin and Dianna Schulte McMenamin argued that a formation of multiple ichthyosaur 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.[17][18]

Opponents have challenged the theory as too far-fetched to be credible and it has been characterised as pseudoscience.[19][20] PZ Myers believes that a much simpler explanation is that the rows of vertebral discs may 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.[21] 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.[22] McMenamin was later quoted as saying: "When you consider that all other explanations for the Ichthyosaur death assemblage have failed, the plausibility goes up. It is currently the leading hypothesis, and none of the critics so far has proposed a fatal or even relatively significant objection." [23]

Mark and Dianna McMenamin presented new evidence favoring the existence of the hypothesized Triassic Kraken on October 31, 2013 at the Geological Society of America annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.[24] Commentator David Fastovsky, speaking to the press after the talk, attempted to critique [25] McMenamins' quantitative argument, but Fastovsky neglected to account for the fact that the vertebral array is both hydrodynamically unstable and could not have formed by passive collapse of a vertebral column because the vertebrae are out of order. McMenamin's probabilistic calculations assume currents strong enough to displace individual vertebrae, but the main argument holds even if no currents were present. Adolf Seilacher has noted that this ichthyosaur bone arrangement "has never been observed at other localities" [26]

Triassic Giant Amphipod

A research expedition to Nevada led by McMenamin in May 2013 led to discovery of the oldest known fossil amphipod, Rosagammarus minichiellus. This research, published in the peer review scientific journal Journal of Crustacean Biology, extends the known geological range of the Amphipoda by at least 170 million years. Considering that giant amphipods inhabit modern deep sea habitats, the fossil discovery in well in accord with indications of a deep water depositional environment for the Triassic Luning Formation[27]

Paleo-Indian Distribution

McMenamin’s research on the initial human colonization of the Americas has contributed evidence suggesting that Paleo-Indians did not rely exclusively on megafauna for subsistence.[28]

Carthaginian World Map

In 1996, McMenamin interpreted a series of enigmatic markings in the reverse exergue of Carthaginian gold coins minted c. 350 BC as an ancient map of the world or mappa mundi.[29] The hypothesis was swiftly confirmed by the appearance of a Carthaginian gold stater showing, in addition to the map interpreted as representing the Mediterranean basin, an image interpreted as a representation of the Americas far to the west.[30]

Hannibal’s Route over the Alps

In a description of previously unknown Carthaginian gold coins minted by the Hanniblic army of occupation in Calabria, McMenamin proposed that the long-disputed route of Hannibal and his army over the Alps may have passed close to the Matterhorn. This route is to the north of the most commonly proposed routes, and may help to explain the astonishment expressed by the defending Italians when Hannibal’s army reached the plains of Italy.[31]

Filmography

Film and television
Year Title Role Notes
2006 Naked Science--Colliding Continents Miscellaneous Crew, Himself National Geographic
2007 How the Earth Was Made Himself History Channel
2013 America Unearthed Himself Committee Films TV Documentary

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Mark McMenamin". Mount Holyoke College web site. Mount Holyoke College. 
  2. ↑ McGoldrick, Debbie, ed. (2011). "Mark McMenamin". The Irish Voice Third Annual Irish Education 100 Special Supplement: S38. 
  3. ↑ Moreno, Javier (October 18, 2011). "De Ediacara a Cartago (entrevista a Mark McMenamin)". La nueva Ilustración Evolucionista. Retrieved 2012-01-20. 
  4. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2010). Cambrian cannibals: agnostid trilobite ethology and the earliest known case of arthropod cannibalism. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 42, no. 5, p. 320.
  5. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (1996). "Ediacaran biota from Sonora, Mexico". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 93: 4990–4993. Bibcode:1996PNAS...93.4990M. doi:10.1073/pnas.93.10.4990. PMC 39393. PMID 11607679. 
  6. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2011). "Fossil chitons and Monomorphichnus from the Ediacaran Clemente Formation, Sonora, Mexico". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 43 (5): 87. 
  7. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2003). "Origin and early evolution of predators: The ecotone model and early evidence for macropredation". In Kelley, P. H.; Kowalewski, M.; Hansen, T. A. Predator-Prey Interactions in the Fossil Record. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York. pp. 379–400. ISBN 0-306-47489-1. 
  8. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (1985). "Basal Cambrian small shelly fossils from the La Ciénega Formation, northwestern Sonora, Mexico". Journal of Paleontology 59 (6): 1414–1425. 
  9. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (1992). "Two new species of the Cambrian genus Mickwitzia". Journal of Paleontology 66 (2): 173–182. 
  10. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S.; Hughes, W. A.; McMenamin, J. M. (2013). "Surviving the Cambrian Explosion: Qinella from Death Valley, California". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program 45 (7): 112. 
  11. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S.; McMenamin, D. L. S. (1994). BioSystems 31: 145–153. 
  12. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S.; McMenamin, D. L. S. (1994). Hypersea: Life on the Land. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07530-8. 
  13. ↑ Margulis, L.; McMenamin, M. A. S. (1990). "Kinetosome-centriolar DNA: Significance for endosymbiosis theory". Treballs de la Societat Catalana de Biologia 41: 5–16. 
  14. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2011). "Teilhard de Chardin’s Legacy in Science". In Salmon, J.; Farina, J. The Legacy of Teilhard de Chardin. Paulist Press, Mahwaw, New Jersey. pp. 33–45. 
  15. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2009). Paleotorus: The Laws of Morphogenetic Evolution. Meanma Press, South Hadley, Massachusetts. ISBN 978-1-893882-18-8. 
  16. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2013). "Breakthrough on the Cambrian Explosion". BioScience 63 (10): 834–835. 
  17. ↑ McMenamin, Mark A. S.; McMenamin, Dianna Schulte (Oct 2011). "Triassic Kraken: The Berlin Ichthyosaur Death Assemblage Interpreted as a Giant Cephalopod Midden". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 43 (5): 310. 
  18. ↑ "Psycho kraken made portraits from bones of prehistoric whale victims. Maybe...". Herald Sun. The Herald and Weekly Times. October 12, 2011. 
  19. ↑ Simpson, Sarah (October 11, 2011). "Smokin' Kraken?". Discovery News. Discovery Channel. Retrieved 2011-10-11. 
  20. ↑ "Mythical Kraken-Like Sea Monster Might be Real: Researcher". International Business Times. The International Business Times Inc. October 12, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-12. 
  21. ↑ Than, Ker (October 11, 2011). "Kraken Sea Monster Account "Bizarre and Miraculous"". National Geographic News. National Geographic Society. Retrieved 2011-10-12. 
  22. ↑ Flatow, Ira (October 14, 2011). "Seeing a Cephalopod in Ancient Bones". NPR Stories. National Public Radio. Retrieved 2011-10-18. 
  23. ↑ Duhaime-Ross, Arielle (November 3, 2011). "Scientifically Inclined: The haunting Triassic Kraken hypothesis". The Ontarion. University of Guelph. Retrieved 2011-12-21. 
  24. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S.; McMenamin, Dianna Schulte (2013). "The Kraken's back: New evidence regarding possible cephalopod arrangement of ichthyosaur skeletons". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 43 (5): 87. 
  25. ↑ Pappas, Stephanie (October 31, 2013). "The kraken rises! New fossil evidence revives sea monster debate". NBC News Science. Retrieved 2012-11-09. 
  26. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2012). "Evidence for a Triassic Kraken: Unusual arrangement of bones at Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada". 21st Century Science and Technology 24 (4): 55–58. 
  27. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S.; Zapata, L. P.; Hussey, M. C. (2013). "A Triassic Giant Amphipod from Nevada, USA". Journal of Crustacean Biology. 
  28. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. S. (2011). "A recycled small Cumberland-Barnes Palaeoindian biface projectile point from southeastern Connecticut". Bulletin of the Massachusetts Archaeological Society 72 (2): 70–73. 
  29. ↑ McMenamin, M. A. (1997). "The Phoenician world map". Mercator’s World 2 (3): 46–51. 
  30. ↑ Classical Numismatic Group (1996). CNG Auction Catalog 40 (December 4, 1996). p. 137. 
  31. ↑ McMenamin, M. (2012). "Depiction of the Alps on Punic coins from Campania, Italy". Numismatics International Bulletin 41 (1-2): 30–33. 

Bibliography

  • McMenamin, Mark A. S. (Oct 2000). The Garden of Ediacara: Discovering the Earliest Complex Life (New Ed ed.). Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-10559-2. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S.; McMenamin, Dianna Schulte. (Jan 1990). The Emergence of Animals: The Cambrian Breakthrough. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-06646-5. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S.; McMenamin, Dianna Schulte (1994). Hypersea: Life on the Land. Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-07530-8. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S. (1996). Carthaginian Cartography: A Stylized Exergue Map. Meanma Press. ISBN 0-9651136-1-2. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S. (Jun 2007). Science 101: Geology. Science 101. Collins. ISBN 0-06-089136-X. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S. (2009). Paleotorus: The Laws of Morphogenetic Evolution. Meanma Press. ISBN 978-1-893882-18-8. 
  • McMenamin, Mark A. S. (2010). "Cambrian cannibals: Agnostid trilobite ethology and the earliest known case of arthropod cannibalism". Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs 42 (5): 320. 
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