Paleoecology of Vertebrates from the Silurian and Devonian of the Canadian Arctic Island

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This award supports the study of the composition and taphonomy of Silurian and Devonian faunas Prince of Whales and Somerset Islands, Canada, together with the sedimentology and petrology of the sediments to provide an overall view of the paleoecology and depositional settings of the vertebrate faunas. The taphonomy will be studied to provide information about the extent to which the faunas have been transported and to aid understanding of the depositional environments in which they occur. Results of the sedimentological and taphonomic studies will be integrated to provide a reconstruction of the environments in which the vertebrates lived. This will then be compared with what is known of other vertebrate faunas of this age in an attempt to provide a better understanding of the environments inhabited by early vertebrates. As many of the vertebrates studied belong to little known groups and as this area has previously been identified as an evolutionary center at this period it is expected that the phylogenetic implications of this work will be extensive.