*This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Microsoft Office.

Although modern Metazoan corals construct Earth’s wave-resistant coral reefs, serve as a cornerstone of marine ecology, and may help mitigate the accumulation of greenhouse gases by building a skeleton (composed of a calcium ...

The carbonate rocks of the Kinkaid Formation (Upper Mississippian) of the Illinois Basin were sampled at an average vertical interval of 17 centimeters from twelve stratigraphic sections in Southern Illinois and Western ...

The 1400 samples of vertically-oriented limestone and dolomite and 50 samples of shale and K-bentonites used in this study were collected from six field sections and four cores of the Galena Group.

Chromatophores, pigment-bearing cells within the ectodermal layer of hermatypic scleractinian coral tissues, are postulated to enhance the photosynthetic activity of zooxanthellae symbionts and possibly protect the coral ...