Vertebrate Paleontology and Sedimentology of the CynognathusZone (late Early Triassic), Beardmore Glacier Region, Antarctica

该奖项支持来自奥古斯塔纳学院和俄亥俄州立大学的研究人员联合进行的一项脊椎动物古生物-沉积学研究，研究对象是在阿纳克蒂卡的比尔德莫尔冰川地区的一个新的脊椎动物地点，在1985-86年野外考察的最后几天，在那里发现了早三叠世晚期的动物群，包括大量的两栖动物和爬行动物。这些化石是沿着一条古代河道的表面发现的，这条河道是最近被侵蚀挖掘出来的。进一步的采集将大大增加该动物区系中的分类群数量。丰富的化石和它们所处的沉积物的理想暴露将使该小组能够进行墓葬研究，重建早三叠世晚期脊椎动物群落的古生态/环境条件，并确定与其他冈瓦那大陆的地层关系。

This award supports investigators from Augustana College and Ohio State University in a joint vertebrate paleontologic- sedimentologic study of a new vertebrate locality in the Beardmore Glacier region of Anarctica where a late Early Triassic fauna, including abundant amphibians and reptiles of he Cynognathus Zone, was found during the final days of the 1985-86 field season. The fossils are found along the surface of an ancient stream channel, which has been exhumed by recent erosion. Further collecting will greatly enlarge the numbers of taxa in this fauna. The abundance of fossils and the ideal exposure of the sediments in which they occur will permit the group to carry out taphonomic studies, reconstruct the paleoecologic/environmental conditions for the late Early Triassic vertebrate community, and work out stratigraphic relations with other Gondwana continents.