Earth Sciences
Welcome to Stellenbosch University

​​​

​Dr. Ryan T. Tucker

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Lecturer

research theme: Sedimentoloc​​ial, Geochronologic, Palaeontologic and Taphonomic context for fossil assemblages in earth’s history.

contact details:

tel +27-21-803522
email: tucker@sun.ac.za


 


Website (for work): https://rtucker76.wixsite.com/srgtucker

Twitter (for work): https://twitter.com/gravelmonkey_76

https://www0.sun.ac.za/researchforimpact/2022/11/16/mongolian-fossils-may-shed-light-on-climate-change-past-and-present/


Academic Background

2014   Ph.D. Geology, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia​

2010   M.S. Vertebrate Paleontology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

2008   B.Sc. in Geology and minor in Paleontology, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

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Background

Dr. Tucker is a field-based geologist with a strong interest in the fossil record and the tectonics of sedimentary basins. In particular, Dr. Tucker’s expertise draws upon a strong background in sedimentary environments, chemical tracers of sedimentary provenance (e.g., detrital zircon geochronology; Lu-Hf isotopes), and paleontology, to address questions about the fossil record and the evolution of sedimentary basins, with focus in the mid-Cretaceous of the Western Interior Basin, Eastern Gobi of Mongolia, and the Khorat Plateau of Thailand and Laos.

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Tucker, R.T., Suarez, C.A. Makovicky P.J., Zanno L.E., 2022 Paralic sedimentology of the Mussentuchit Member Coastal Plain, Cedar Mountain Formation, Central Utah. SEPM, Journal of Sedimentology, v92, 1-24

Tucker, R.T., Hyland, E.G., Gates, T.A., King, M.R., Roberts, E.M., Foley, E.K., Berndt, D., Hanta, R., Khansubha, S.O., Aswasereelert, W. and Zanno, L.E., 2022. Age, depositional history, and paleoclimatic setting of Early Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages from the Sao Khua Formation (Khorat Group), Thailand. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, p.111107.

Cilliers, C.D., Tucker, R.T., Crowley, J.L., Zanno, ​L.E., 2021. Age constraint for the Moreno Hill Formation (Zuni Basin) by CA-TIMS and LA-ICP-MS detrital zircon geochronol​ogy. PeerJ  

Tucker, R.T., Zanno, L.E., Huang, H.Q. and Makovicky, P.J., 2020. A refined temporal framework for newly discovered fossil assemblages of the upper Cedar Mountain Formation (Mussentuchit Member), Mussentuchit Wash, Central Utah. Cretaceous Research, 110, p.104384.

Walters, S.W. and Tucker, R.T., 2020. Resolving cryptic stratigraphy in the Ecca Group, Karoo Basin, South Africa: Elucidating the Ripon and Laingsburg depocenters. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 172, p.103913.

Zanno L.E., Gates T.A., Canoville, A. ,Tucker, R.T., Avrahami H ., Makovicky P.J., 2019. Diminutive, fleet-footed tyrannosauroid narrows the 70-million-year gap in the fossil record of North American “tyrants." Communications Biology 2: 64

Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M., Darlington, V., Salisbury, S.W. 2017. Stratigraphy and palaeoenvironments of mid-Cretaceous vertebrate-bearing deposits of Eastern Australia: a reappraisal of the Winton Formation, central Queensland. Sedimentary Geology

Salisbury, S. W., Romilio, A., Herne, M. C., Tucker, R. T., & Nair, J. P. 2016. The Dinosaurian Ichnofauna of the Lower Cretaceous (Valanginian–Barremian) Broome Sandstone of the Walmadany Area (James Price Point), Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 36(sup1), 1-152

Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M., Henderson, R.A., Kemp, A.I., 2016. U-Pb and Lu-Hf detrital zircon provenance analysis of the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation, Eromanga Basin, Queensland: implications for the tectonic evolution of eastern Australia. GSA Bulletin.

Tucker, R.T., 2015. Re-evaluation of vertebrate trace fossils via U-Pb LA-ICPMS zircon geochronology and facies analysis in Queensland, Australia and Lesotho, Africa.  First International Congress on Continental Ichnology (ICCI) Extended Abstract

Tucker, R. T., Roberts, E. M., Hu, Y., Kemp, A. I., Salisbury, S. W., 2013. Detrital zircon age constraints for the Winton Formation, Queensland: Contextualizing Australia's Late Cretaceous dinosaur faunas. Gondwana Research 24(2), 767-779

Romilio, A., Tucker, R.T., Salisbury, S.W., 2013. Reevaluation of the Lark Quarry dinosaur Tracksite (late Albian–Cenomanian Winton Formation, central-western Queensland, Australia): no longer a stampede?. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(1), 102-120

Tucker, R.T., 2011. Taphonomy of Sheridan College Quarry 1, Buffalo, Wyoming: implications for reconstructing historic dinosaur localities including Utterback’s 1902-1910 Morrison dinosaur expeditions: Geobios, 44, 527-541.
 
Peer Reviewed Conference Abstracts
 

Zanno LE, Avrahami HM^, Gates TA, Tucker R.T., Makovicky PJ. 2019. Preliminary Data On Elongatoolithid Clutches And Associated Fauna From The Cenomanian Mussentuchit Member, Cedar Mountain Formation Of Utah. VII International Symposium on Dinosaur Eggs and Babies, Shiyan, China

Gates, T.A., Tucker, R.T., Bourn, N., Englebrecht, R., Turner, S., Hulbert, J., Zanno, L.E. 2019. Establishing Public Education-Research Collaborations using citizen science in the Western Cape of South Africa: Identifying the challenges. Citizen Science Association Conference, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

Tucker, R.T., Makovicky, P.J., Zanno, L.E. 2018. Recent advances in temporal calibration for newly discovered dinosaurian assemblages in the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Central Utah, USA. 78th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Zanno, L.E., Gates, T.A., Canoville, A., Tucker, R.T., Avrahami, H.M., Makovicky, P.J. 2018. A Gracile tyrannosauroid from the dawn of the Late Cretaceous in North America. 78th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Chiappe, L.M., Nova, W., Martinelli, A.G., Tucker, R.T., Alvarenga, H. 2018. A Remarkable assemblage of Enantiornithine birds from the Late Cretaceous of South Eastern Brazil. 78th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

​Chiappe, L.M., Nova, W., Martinelli, A.G., Tucker, R.T., Alvarenga, H. 2018. an exceptional bone bed of enantiornithine birds in the late cretaceous of brazil. 5th International Palaeontological Congress, Sorbonne University; National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France July 19th-13th 2018

Rademan, Z., Tucker, R.T., 2017.  Radiometric age dating of key ichnological surfaces within the Elliot Formation at Maphutseng and Quthing (Moyeni), Kingdom of Lesotho, Southern Africa.  Second International Congress on Continental Ichnology (ICCI 2017) El Cape Town, South Africa

Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M. 2017. Mid-Cretaceous development of the Eromanga Basin, Queensland, Australia; palaeoenvironmental and palaeobiogeographic context for newly discovered fossil assemblages. 10th ISC International Symposium on the Cretaceous, Aug. 21st-26th, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Symons, R.C.R., Jonk, L., Tucker, R.T., Makovicky, P.J., Zanno, L.E.,2017. Contextualizing newly discovered dinosaurian assemblage in the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Central Utah, USA: insights from the sedimentary record. 10th ISC International Symposium on the Cretaceous, Aug. 21st-26th, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

Tucker, R.T., Rademan, Z., Klausen, M.B., 2016. Pompeii-like floral-fossils in the Kruger National Park: Palaeoenvironmental context for newly discovered assemblages along the Letaba River; South Africa. 76th Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA

Hanta, R., Fuengkajorn, K., Tucker, R.T., Jintasakul, P., Junrattanamanee, T., 2016 Revision of the Nam Phong Formation (Khorat Group), Chaiyaphum, northeastern Thailand. 50th CCOP conference-Bangkok-1 November

Walters, S., Tucker, R.T., 2016. Reanalysis of cryptic sedimentological relationships involving the Southern Karoo Ripon Formation and the south-western Karoo Vischkuil/Laingsburg Formations: Implications for basin and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. 35th International Geological Congress, 27th August-4th September, Cape Town, South Africa. 
Tucker, R.T., 2015. Re-evaluation of vertebrate trace fossils via U-Pb LA-ICPMS zircon geochronology and facies analysis in Queensland, Australia and Lesotho, Africa. Conference: First International Congress on Continental Ichnology (ICCI 2015) El Jadida, Morocco

Salisbury, S.W., Romilio, A., Herne, M., Tucker, R.T., Nair, J., 2014. The Early Cretaceous Dinosaurian ichnofauna of the Broome Sandstone from the Walmadany area (James Price Point) of the Dampier Peninsula, Western Australia. 74th Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Berlin Germany, Programs and Abstracts, 219.

Van Gend, J., Tucker, R.T., Bordy, E.M., 2014. Reevaluation of vertebrate tracks in the Elliot and Clarens Formations (Karoo Supergroup), Lesotho - implications for the macrovertebrate biostratigraphic framework and the faunal turn-over in the Late Triassic to Early Jurassic. Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Conference of the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, 49. 

Tucker, R.T., 2014. Re-evaluation of the mid-Cretaceous Winton Formation, northeastern Australia via U-Pb LA-ICPMS detrital zircon geochronology; implications for regional tectonics, sedimentary provenance and vertebrate palaeontology. Proceedings of the 18th Biennial Conference of the Palaeontological Society of Southern Africa, Johannesburg, South Africa, 48. 

Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M. Salisbury, S.W., 2013. U-Pb LA-ICPMS detrital zircon geochronology of the upper Ccretaceous Winton Formation, Queensland Australia: implications for regional tectonics, sedimentary provenance and vertebrate paleontology. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, 45(7), 808. 
Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M. Salisbury, S.W. 2013, (Invited Speaker). Advances in dating the Late Cretaceous vertebrate record of northeastern Australia using U-Pb LA-ICMPS detrital zircon geochronology. 73rd Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) in Los Angeles, California, USA 2013. 

Tucker, R.T., Roberts, E.M. Salisbury, S.W. 2011. New information on the stratigraphy, depositional environment and taphonomy of the mid-Cretaceous Winton Formation, central-western Queensland, Australia; p. 84 in Trinajstic, K., Bunce, M., Warburton, N., Hadley, C., Baynes, A. and Siversson, M. (eds.), 13th Conference on Australasian Vertebrate Evolution, Palaeontology and Systematics (CAVEPS), 27–30 April 2011, Perth. Geological Survey of Western Australia, 2011/9. 

Testin, J.J., Tucker, R.T., Miyashita, T., Holtz Jr. T.R., 2011. Dental morphology of allosaurus fragilis (dinosauria: theropoda) from the upper jurassic morrison formation of western north america: is dentition more indicative of taxonomy or feeding niche?. 71st Annual Meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology (SVP) Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 31 (Supplement to number 2).  

Testin, Jason J., Tucker, R,T., 2010. Survey of theropod (Dinosauria, Saurishia) dentition: morphology and function: 95th Annual Meeting of the South Dakota Academy of Sciences: Program and Abstracts, (abstract). 

Tucker, R., 2009. Geology and paleontology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison and Lower Cretaceous Cloverly Formations along the eastern flank of The Bighorn Mountains, northeastern Wyoming: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, v. 29 (Supplement to number 3) 195A.

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