COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: A Lower-to Middle-Jurassic Terrestrial Vertebrate Assemblage and Its Implications for the Post-Triassic Radiation of Tetrapods

在这次更新中，PI将与墨西哥合作， 同事们，完成一项跨学科的研究工作， 惠扎查尔侏罗纪小型脊椎动物化石组合 峡谷，墨西哥东北部。 这些化石代表了 显然是世界性的，低多样性的动物分布在整个 在三叠纪末大灭绝后的泛古陆 三行 要完成的研究是1）研究一些新发现的 化石，包括一个新的楔齿龙的头骨，2）收集和 分析花粉从适当的地方，和3）延长 深入到邻近的峡谷中， 含化石层的岩石地层关系。一些 将进行额外的地球化学分析和放射性测年， 以帮助确定这些化石地层的年龄。

In this renewal, PIs will, in collaboration with Mexican colleagues, finish work on an interdisciplinary study of an early Jurassic assemblage of small fossil vertebrates from Huizachal Canyon, NE Mexico. These fossils represent a rare example of the apparently cosmopolitan, low-diversity fauna distributed throughout most of Pangaea after the end-Triassic extinction. Three lines of research to be completed are 1) study some newly discovered fossils, including skulls of a new sphenodontian, 2) collect and analyze pollen from appropriate localities, and 3) extend the stratigraphy into neighboring canyons to establish lithostratigraphic relationships of the fossil-bearing beds. Some additional geochemical analyses and radiometric dating will be conducted to help establish the age of these fossil-bearing strata.