Dinosaur Evolutionary Dynamics and Habitat Bottlenecks

恐龙进化动力学和栖息地瓶颈

• 批准号: 9004458
• 负责人: David Weishampel
• 金额: $ 10.13万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1990
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1990-07-01 至 1992-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9004458&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dinosaur; Evolutionary; Dynamics; Habitat; Bottlenecks

Recent research by The Johns Hopkins University in the St. Mary River and Willow Creek formation of northwestern Montana has contributed important information about dinosaur faunas from upper coastal plain environments not otherwise available from most other regions that have yielded Late Cretaceous faunas. These new data are critical to the larger issues of their effects on extinction and speciation of large-bodied terrestrial vertebrates. Further field and laboratory work is essential for a better understanding of the faunal components of this upper coastal plain habitat and the effects of severe reduction in terrestrial environments through marine transgressions (i.e. habitat bottlenecks) and their release. With these goals in mind, the field work will be devoted to collecting specimens, mapping localities and detailing the stratigraphy of the St. Mary River and Willow Creek sites. Laboratory research will focus on the paleoecologic and evolutionary interpretation of the St. Mary River fauna necessary for a critical understanding of these habitat bottlenecks. This work includes 1) new approaches to the analysis of ontogenetic stages and evolution of St. Mary River taxa using landmark-based morphometrics, 2) new analyses of the feeding and locomotion of the St. Mary River animals on the kinematics of the jaws and teeth, and the kinematics and cross- sectional geometry of the limbs, and 3) interpretation of these data in terms of the evolutionary dynamics of St. Mary River taxa to the opening of terrestrial habitats through the regression of the Bearpaw Sea. This study will fill a significant void in our knowledge of an important component of Late Cretaceous ecosystems (life in upper coastal plain environments) at a time critical to the history of dinosaurs and other vertebrates (the Edmontonian Land Mammal Age at the close of the Cretaceous). In doing so, it will contribute to our understanding of how major environmental crises such as extensive transgressions and regressions relate to the evolutionary dynamics of large-bodied vertebrates.

约翰·霍普金斯大学最近在蒙大拿州西北部的圣玛丽河和柳溪地层进行的研究提供了有关来自上部沿海平原环境的恐龙动物群的重要信息，而这些信息无法从大多数其他产生晚白垩世动物群的地区获得。 这些新数据对于解决它们对大型陆生脊椎动物灭绝和物种形成的影响等更大问题至关重要。 进一步的实地和实验室工作对于更好地了解上部沿海平原栖息地的动物组成以及海洋侵入（即栖息地瓶颈）及其释放导致陆地环境严重减少的影响至关重要。 考虑到这些目标，实地工作将致力于收集标本、绘制地点地图并详细说明圣玛丽河和柳溪遗址的地层。 实验室研究将集中于对圣玛丽河动物群的古生态和进化解释，这对于批判性地了解这些栖息地瓶颈是必要的。 这项工作包括 1) 使用基于地标的形态计量学分析圣玛丽河类群的个体发育阶段和进化的新方法，2) 对圣玛丽河动物的摄食和运动在颌骨和牙齿的运动学以及四肢的运动学和横截面几何学上的新分析，以及 3) 根据圣玛丽河类群到 通过熊掌海的退缩开放陆地栖息地。 这项研究将填补我们对白垩纪晚期生态系统（上部沿海平原环境中的生命）的重要组成部分的认识中的一个重大空白，该时期对恐龙和其他脊椎动物的历史至关重要（白垩纪末的埃德蒙顿陆地哺乳动物时代）。 这样做将有助于我们理解大规模的海侵和回归等重大环境危机与大型脊椎动物的进化动态之间的关系。