Paleobiology of High Latitude Decapod Crustacean Assemblages

该奖项支持对南美洲南部白垩纪和第三纪十足甲壳类动物（螃蟹和龙虾）的研究，并将这些化石与南极洲西摩岛的类似动物群进行比较。在白垩纪晚期到新生代早期，南美洲、澳大利亚、新西兰和南极洲在南环太平洋地区形成了一个毗连的大陆，因此动物的扩散可能是畅通的。到目前为止，在这些地区的工作表明，南部高纬度地区在新物种的进化和传播中发挥了重要作用。然而，进化中心和扩散模式的细节仍然是暂定的，部分原因是在南极半岛和南美洲南部的实地研究不足。这项工作将通过收集和描述智利南部和阿根廷已知白垩纪-第三纪地层剖面的十足甲壳类动物，缓解部分地理知识差距。南美洲南部的十足类动物与澳大利亚、新西兰和南极半岛的十足类动物的比较是整个南半球古生态模型的重要组成部分。此外，这项工作将有助于确定最近在南极洲西摩岛描述的独特的白垩纪-第三纪化石组合的古地理背景。

This award supports an investigation of Cretaceous and Tertiary decapod crustaceans (crabs and lobsters) from southern South America and a comparison of these fossils to similar faunas from Seymour Island, Antarctica. In late Cretaceous to early Cenozoic time, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Antarctica formed a contiguous landmass in the southern Circum-Pacific region and so dispersal of faunas was presumably unimpeded. Work in these regions so far suggests that the southern high latitude region played an important role in the evolution and dispersal of new species. However, details of evolutionary centers and dispersal patterns remain tentative, in part because of insufficient field studies in the Antarctic Peninsula and southern South America. This work will alleviate part of the geographical gap in knowledge by collecting and describing decapod crustaceans from known Cretaceous-Tertiary stratigraphic sections in southern Chile and Argentina. Comparison of decapods from southern South America with those known from Australia, New Zealand, and the Antarctic Peninsula is an essential part of a paleoecological model of the entire southern hemisphere. In addition, this work will help to define the paleogeographic context for the unique Cretaceous-Tertiary fossils assemblages that have recently been described from Seymour Island, Antarctica.