Ross Secord

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Ross Secord

Associate Professor Earth and Atmospheric Sciences University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Contact

Address
BESY 200
Lincoln, NE 68588-0340
Phone
402-472-2661 On-campus 2-2661
Email
rsecord2@unl.edu

My research centers around Paleogene mammals and problems in paleoclimatology and paleoecology that can be addressed with the use of stable isotopes. In general, I am interested in faunal change and paleoecological change through time, and how those changes may have been influenced by climate. My current research focuses on a series of Paleogene mammalian dispersal events, the largest of which occurred during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum (PETM). The earliest known true primates and modern ungulates (Perissodactyla and Artiodactyla) first appear in North America, Europe, and Asia during the PETM. Their dispersal coincided with extreme short-term warming as evidenced by marine and continental paleoclimate proxies. The arrival of these immigrants dramatically and permanently altered the composition of faunas. Along with collaborators from other institutions, we are developing a high-resolution biostratigraphy and chemostratigraphy through the PETM. Stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon from mammal teeth are providing clues to climate and ecological change that occurred in the PETM.

I am interested in applying similar methods to other intervals of marked climate change to learn more about the response of mammalian communities to climate and ecological change. I am also interested in mammalian biostratigraphy and biochronology for the purpose of placing faunas into a strong geochronologic framework.

Selected Publications

Monographs

Secord, R., 2008, The Tiffanian land-mammal age (middle and late Paleocene) in the northern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming: Papers on Paleontology, v. 35, p. 1-192.

Edited Volumes

Kelly, T. S., and Secord, R., 2009, Biostratigraphy of the Hunter Creek Sandstone, Verdi Basin, Washoe County, Nevada, in Oldow, J. S., and Cashman, P. H., eds., Late Cenozoic structure and evolution of the Great Basin-Sierra Nevada transition, Geological Society of America Special Paper 447, p. 133-146.

Refereed Journal Articles (*graduate student, **UNL graduate student)

*Ward, C., Crowley, B. E., and Secord, R., (2024), Enamel carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotopes reveal limited mobility in Teleoceras major (Rhinocerotidae) at Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska, USA: Scientific Reports, p. 1-45.

Foreman, B. Z., Secord, R., and Korasidis, V. A., 2024, The Paleocene‐Eocene Thermal Maximum recognized in distal alluvial fan strata of the Sevier Fold and Thrust belt (Southwestern Wyoming, USA): Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, v. 39, p. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024PA004959.

*Ward, C. T., Crowley, B. E., and Secord, R., 2024, Home on the range: A multi-isotope investigation of ungulate resource partitioning at Ashfall Fossil Beds, Nebraska, USA: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 650, p. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2024.112375.

Miller, J. H., Fisher, D. C., Crowley, B. E., Secord, R., and Konomi, B. A., 2022, Male mastodon landscape use changed with maturation: PNAS, v. 119, p. 1-10.

**Nguy, W., and Secord, R., 2022, Middle Miocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the central Great Plains, USA, from stable carbon isotopes in ungulates: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 594, p. 1-17. Doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.110929

*Widlansky, S. J., Secord, R., Snell, K. E., Chew, A. E., and Clyde, W. C., 2022, Terrestrial carbon isotope stratigraphy and mammal turnover during post-PETM hyperthermals in the Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, USA: Climate of the Past, v. 18, p. 681–712.

**Wang, B., and Secord, R., 2020, Paleoecology of Aphelops and Teleoceras (Rhinocerotidae) through an interval of changing climate and vegetation in the Neogene of the Great Plains, North America: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 542, p. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.109411.

*Flynn, A., *Davis, A., Williamson, T., Heizler, M., Fenley, C., IV, Leslie, C., Secord, R., Brusatte, S., and Peppe, D., 2020, Early Paleocene Magnetostratigraphy and Revised Biostratigraphy of the Ojo Alamo Sandstone and Lower Nacimiento Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA: Geological Society of America Bulletin.

*Leslie, C., Peppe, D., Williamson, T., Bilardello, D., Heizler, M., Secord, R., and Leggett, T., 2018, High-resolution magnetostratigraphy of the upper Nacimiento Formation, San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA: implications for basin evolution and mammalian turnover: American Journal of Science, v. 318, p. 300–334. 

Loope, D. B., and Secord, R., 2017, Interactions of a Paleocene river, a rising fold, and early-diagenetic concretions: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 87, p. 866-879.

*Baczynski, A. A., McInerney, F. A., Wing, S. L., Kraus, M. J., Bloch, J. I., and Secord, R., 2017, Constraining paleohydrologic change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum in the continental interior of North America: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology v. 465, p. 237–246.

Williamson, T. E., Brusatte, S. L., Secord, R., and *Shelley, S., 2015, A new taeniolabidoid multituberculate (Mammalia) from the middle Puercan of the Nacimiento Formation, New Mexico, and a revision of taeniolabidoid systematics and phylogeny: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 175, no. 2, p. 1-26, doi: 10.1111/zoj.12336.

**Kita, Z. A., Secord, R., and **Boardman, G. S., 2014, A new record of Neogene mammalian stable isotope paleoecology in the western Great Plains and the expansion of C4 grasslands: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 399, 160-172. 

**Boardman, G. S., and Secord, R., 2013, Stable isotope paleoecology of White River ungulates during the Eocene–Oligocene climate transition in northwestern Nebraska: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 375, p. 38-49.

Kraus, M. J., McInerney, F. A., Wing, S. L., Secord, R., *Baczynski, A. A., and Bloch, J. I., 2013, Paleohydrologic response to continental warming during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology, v. 370, p. 196-208. 

*Baczynski, A. A., McInerney, F. A., Wing, S. L., Kraus, M. J., Bloch, J. I., Secord, R., Boyer, D. M., Morse, P. E., and Fricke, H. C., 2013, Chemostratigraphic implications of spatial variation in the PETM carbon isotope excursion across the SE Bighorn Basin, WY: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 14, 20 p. 

Secord, R., Bloch, J. I., *Chester, S. G.  B., Boyer, D. M., *Wood, A. R., Wing, S. L., Kraus, M. J., McInerney, F. A., and Krigbaum, J., 2012, Evolution of the earliest horses driven by climate change in the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: Science, v. 335, p. 959-962.

Secord, R., 2012, Hot spells on land (News and Views): Nature Geoscience, v. 5, no. 4, p. 306-307. 

Kelly, T. S., and Secord, R., 2011, A reevaluation of the mammalian fauna from the Hallelujah Formation, Long Valley, Lassen County, California: Paludicola, v. 8, no. 3, p. 142-154. 

Secord, R., Gingerich, P. D., Lohmann, K. C., and MacLeod, K. G., 2010, Continental warming preceding the Palaeocene-Eocene thermal maximum: Nature, v. 467, doi: 10.1038/nature09441. 

*Chester, S. G. B., Bloch, J. I., Secord, R., and Boyer, D. M., 2010, A new, small species of Palaeonictis (Creodonta, Oxyaenidae) from the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum: Journal of Mammalian Evolution, v. 17, p. 227-243, doi: 10.1007/s10914-010-9141-y. 

Secord, R., Wing, S. L., and Chew, A., 2008, Stable isotopes in early Eocene mammals as indicators of forest canopy structure and resource partitioning: Paleobiology, p. 282-300. 

Secord, R., Gingerich, P. D., Smith, M. E., Clyde, W. C., Wilf, P., and Singer, B. S., 2006, Geochronology and mammalian biostratigraphy of middle and upper Paleocene continental strata, Bighorn Basin, Wyoming: American Journal of Science, v. 306, p. 211-245. 

Bloch, J. I., Secord, R., and Gingerich, P. D., 2004,  Systematics and phylogeny of late Paleocene and early Eocene Palaeoryctinae (Mammalia, Insectivora) from the Clarks Fork and Bighorn basins, Wyoming. Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, v. 31, p. 119-154. 

Secord, R., Gingerich, P. D., and Bloch, J. I., 2002, Mylanodon rosei, a new Metacheiromyid (Mammalia, Palaeanodonta) from the latest Tiffanian (late Paleocene) of northwestern Wyoming: Contributions from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, v. 30, p. 385-399.

Secord, R., 1998, Paleocene mammalian biostratigraphy of the Carbon Basin, southeastern Wyoming, and age constraints on local phases of tectonism: Rocky Mountain Geology, v. 33, p. 119-154.