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Maurice Mehl

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Maurice Goldsmith Mehl
Born(1887-12-25)December 25, 1887
Burlingame, Kansas
DiedMarch 30, 1966(1966-03-30) (aged 78)
Columbia, Missouri
NationalityAmerican
Other names"Doc" Mehl
Scientific career
FieldsPaleontology
InstitutionsUniversity of Chicago
University of Wisconsin
University of Oklahoma
Denison University
University of Missouri
Thesis (1914)
Doctoral advisorSamuel Wendell Williston

Maurice Goldsmith Mehl (1887 - 1966) was an American paleontologist and professor in the Department of Geology at the University of Missouri.

Life and career

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Mehl was born on December 25, 1887, to Frank and Rebecca Goldsmith Mehl. After graduation from Burlingame High School, he attended the University of Chicago, where he completed a B.S. in 1911 and a Ph.D. in 1914. While at Chicago, he met Lucy Jane Hull and they were married in 1912. At Chicago, Mehl studied vertebrate paleontology under the instruction of prominent paleontologist Samuel Wendell Williston. He taught at Chicago for a while as well as at University of Wisconsin, University of Oklahoma, and Denison University before joining the University of Missouri in 1919. In addition to teaching and researching at Missouri until his retirement in 1958, where he was known as "Doc" Mehl, he also worked as a consultant to the Missouri Geological Survey and Water Resources. While at Missouri, he had a long and productive collaboration with his colleague Edward Branson, with whom many discoveries in paleontology were co-authored. Doc was 78 and living in Columbia at the time of his passing and was survived by his wife Lucy, their two children, and three great-grandchildren.[1]

Discoveries

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A skull of M. andersoni

In 1922, he named Machaeroprosopus andersoni, on the basis of the holotype FMNH UC 396, partial skull. It was probably collected from the Bull Canyon Formation of the Chinle Group or Dockum Group, probably at the Bull Canyon, in the Guadalupe County of New Mexico. This taxon was considered to be a junior synonym of M. buceros by Long and Murry (1995) and later authors, although Stocker and Butler (2013) treated M. andersoni as a valid species. The holotype is the only known specimen of this species, although there are other specimens from the Bull Canyon Formation that were referred to Arribasuchus buceros by Long and Murry (1995), but not by Stocker and Butler (2013).

In 1929, he and Edward Branson described the Metoposauridae Koskinonodon.[2]

In 1930, he described Amphekepubis, a genus of mosasaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico. Their remains correspond to the holotype specimen UM VP 509 (University of Missouri), a partial skeleton preserved in three dimensions, comprising the pelvic area, hind limb bones and nine caudal vertebrae, found in the east of Monterrey, in the state of Nuevo Leon, which come from marine sediments (claystones) apparently from the San Felipe Formation, which corresponds to the boundary between the ages of Coniacian and Santonian in the early Late Cretaceous.[3] However, it has been suggested that age may be more recent and its remains even might belong to the genus Mosasaurus.[4][5]

In 1931, he erected the new ichnogenus Ignotornis for some bird tracks preserved in the Dakota Group near Golden, Colorado. These were the first scientifically documented Mesozoic bird footprints. The bird in question as interpreted as a "small shorebird or wader". The site would eventually be heavily collected and all of its tracks were presumed removed.

In 1932, he and Branson reported the presence of Carboniferous-aged fossil footprints of a new ichnospecies in the Tensleep Formation of Wyoming. They named the tracks Steganoposaurus belli and attributed them to an amphibian nearly three feet in length.
Also with Edward Branson, he named a new kind of Late Triassic dinosaur footprint discovered in the Popo Agie Formation of western Wyoming. The new ichnogenus and species was named Agialopus wyomingensis.

In 1933, he and Branson described the conodont Wurmiella excavata.

In 1934, with Branson, he described the conodont genera Pseudopolygnathus and Ancyrognathus.[6]

In 1936, he described the new ankylosaur species Nodosaurus coleii.[7]

In 1938, he and Branson reviewed the conodont genus Icriodus.[8]

In 1941, with Branson, he described the conodont genera Bactrognathus, Doliognathus, Scaliognathus and Staurognathus.[9][10]

In 1944, he described with Branson the conodont genus Siphonodella.[11]

Awards and honors

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Mehl was a fellow of the Geological Society of America (1922), the Paleontological Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1915).[12] He was also a founding member and officer of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

References

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  1. ^ Ellison, Jr., Samuel P. (1966). "Memorial to Maurice Goldsmith Mehl (1887-1966)". GSA Bulletin. 77 (12): 219–224. doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1966)77[P219:MTMGM]2.0.CO;2.
  2. ^ Mueller, B. D. (2007) Koskinonodon Branson and Mehl, 1929, a replacement name for the preoccupied temnospondyl Buettneria Case, 1922. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 27 (1): 225.
  3. ^ M. G. Mehl. 1930. A new genus of mosasaurs from Mexico, and notes on the pelvic girdle of Platecarpus. Denison University Bulletin, Journal of the Scientific Laboratories 29(10):383-400
  4. ^ Marie-Céline Buchy, Eberhard Frey, Wolfgang Stinnesbeck, and José Guadalupe López-Oliva. Cranial anatomy of a Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) mosasaur (Squamata, Mosasauridae) from north-east Mexico Archived 2012-06-30 at archive.today. Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Geológicas, año/vol. 24, número 001. pp. 89-103
  5. ^ Lingham-Soliar, T., 1995, Anatomy and functional morphology of the largest marine reptile known, Mosasaurus hoffmanni (Mosasauridae, Reptilia) from the Upper Cretaceous, Upper Maastrichtian of The Netherlands: Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of Geology of North America, Volume J, 205-215. London, B, 347, 155-180.
  6. ^ Conodonts from Glassy Creek Shale of Missouri. EB Branson and MG Mehl, Univ. Missouri Studies, 1934
  7. ^ Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel (2004); "Table 17.1: Ankylosauria", page 367.
  8. ^ The Conodont Genus Icriodus and Its Stratigraphic Distribution. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Mar., 1938), pages 156-166 (Stable URL retrieved 29 April 2016)
  9. ^ New and Little Known Carboniferous Conodont Genera. E. B. Branson and M. G. Mehl, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Mar., 1941), pages 97-106 (Stable URL, retrieved 29 April 2015)
  10. ^ Phylogeny of the Multielement Conodont Genera Bactrognathus, Doliognathus and Staurognathus. Karl M. Chauff, Journal of Paleontology, Vol. 59, No. 2 (Mar., 1985), pages 299-309 (Stable URL, retrieved 22 April 2016)
  11. ^ Conodonts. EB Branson and MG Mehl, in HW Shimer and RR Shrock, Index Fossils of North America. 1944
  12. ^ "Historic Fellows". AAAS. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
  • Mehl, Maurice; Toepelmann, W. C.; Schwartz, G. M. (1916). "New or little known reptiles from the Trias of Arizona and New Mexico with notes from the fossil bearing horizons near Wingate, New Mexico". University of Oklahoma Bulletin 103: 1–44
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