Analysis of a Late Cretaceous Vertebrate Fauna, North Slope,Alaska

阿拉斯加北坡晚白垩世脊椎动物群分析

• 批准号: 8619283
• 负责人: William Clemens
• 金额: $ 10万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1987
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1987-06-15 至 1989-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8619283&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Analysis; Late; Cretaceous; Vertebrate; Fauna

Occurrences of closely related, terrestrial vertebrates at mid- latitudes in North America and Asia suggest that Alaska was part of an intercontinental route of overland dispersal and supported diverse faunas during the late Cretaceous. Until recently the composition of these faunas was unknown. Discovery of concentrations of dinosaur fossils on the Alaskan North Slope opens the possibility for the first assessment of the composition of this Cretaceous fauna. Field work in this area will allow thorough sampling of the vertebrate fauna preserved in North Slope localities. Members of the U.S. Geological Survey are investigating the invertebrate paleontology, paleobotany, tephrachronology, and magnetostratigraphy of this geological section. Correlated with these and other lines of investigation, the occurrences should yield information on the tolerances of some dinosaurs to extremes in temperature and light conditions. Most current hypotheses concerning dinosaurian extinction invoke either catastrophic or gradual environmental change as a causal factor. Determination of the probable ranges of environmental tolerance of Alaskan dinosaurs will contribute to the evaluation of these hypotheses.

近缘的陆生脊椎动物在中- 北美和亚洲的纬度表明，阿拉斯加是 陆地传播的洲际路线和支持多样性 白垩纪晚期的动物群 直到最近， 这些动物群是未知的。 发现恐龙聚集地 阿拉斯加北坡的化石开启了第一个 评估白垩纪动物群的组成。 实地工作 这个区域将允许对脊椎动物群进行彻底的采样 保存在北坡地区。 美国地质学会会员 调查正在调查古无脊椎动物，古植物学， 地质剖面的年代学和磁性地层学。 与这些和其他调查路线相关， 出现的情况应该产生一些公差的信息， 恐龙在极端的温度和光照条件下生存 最 目前关于马丘比丘灭绝的假设， 灾难性的或渐进的环境变化作为一个因果因素。 环境耐受性的可能范围的确定 阿拉斯加恐龙将有助于评估这些 假设