Cenozoic Vertebrate Paleontology and Biogeography of the West Indies

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This project is designed to evaluate competing models of biogeography of freshwater fishes and land vertebrates in the Caribbean islands. Its novel aspect is that it will emphasize data from two sources that are critical to the problem, but which have been neglected: the Tertiary fossil record and the island of Cuba. The investigators' recent successes in discovering Tertiary vertebrates in the West Indies demonstrate that a significant and relevant fossil record can be recovered. Cuba is of particular importance because this island constitutes one-third of the land surface of the Antilles, yet its biota is known in only a rudimentary way. To maximize results, the investigators will prospect for fossils in both Quaternary and Tertiary contexts in Hispaniola and Cuba. Major goals are (1) to increase sample sizes of poorly known taxa and to prospect for heretofore unknown taxa; (2) to begin a program of dating to document when the Quaternary fauna of large animals went extinct; (3) to establish the nature of pre-Quaternary biodiversity in the Greater Antilles; (4) to utilize ancient biodiversity as a means for evaluating the comparative importance of dispersal and vicariance (i.e., plate tectonic events) in formation of the Antillean fauna; and (5) to develop human resources in the Dominican Republic in order to enhance local ability to study and conserve biodiversity. These goals are complementary to the investigators' general program of investigating causes and consequences of reduction in biodiversity on island and in islandlike settings.