The combined use of the stable isotope compositions speleothem carbonate and inclusion-hosted water presents great potential in paleotemperature reconstructions, due to various temperature-dependent fractionations detected cave systems their environment. This paper evaluates applicational possibilities hydrogen oxygen measurements its host calcite, three different approaches: i) direct determin...

The hierarchical nature of phylogenies means that random extinction of species affects a smaller fraction of higher taxa, and so the total amount of evolutionary history lost may be comparatively slight. However, current extinction risk is not phylogenetically random. We show the potentially severe implications of the clumped nature of threat for the loss of biodiversity. An additional 120 avia...

In this paper we present an overview of recent work on lattice and measure-valued models of catalytic reactions and in particular catalytic branching systems. The main phenomena exhibited by nearly critical branching systems are dimension-dependent clumping in small and large space and time scales. Special emphasis is given to the e ects which occur when the catalyst is highly clumped and in pa...

Recent progress in the quantitative analysis of Wolf-Rayet stars is reviewed, emphasising the role played by choice of spectral diagnostics, clumping and line blanketing on derived stellar properties. The ionizing properties of WR stars are discussed, based on clumped, line blanketed models for WN and WC stars. The role of metallicity and mass-loss is assessed, and the role of H ii regions as p...

Land snails are widely distributed animals whose clumped isotope (∆47) in shell carbonates can serve as a proxy for temperature terrestrial environments. However, it is unclear whether the ∆47 values of snail shells affected by biological processes known “vital effects.” Here, we report whole Achatina fulica cultured at different temperatures growth ages (samples collected monthly). In general,...

Several years ago, paleontologist Shaena Montanari was doing field work in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert when she noticed fragments of dinosaur eggshells in the sand. She knew them by distinctive lines and bumps on their surfaces. Montanari, then a graduate student at the American Museum of Natural History, and now a Royal Society fellow at the University of Edinburgh, realized she could use the fragm...