SGER: Late Cretaceous Mammals from Madagascar

调查人员将在马达加斯加探索有希望的白垩纪哺乳动物遗骸地质矿床。如果这次考察成功，这些发现将彻底改变我们对以下方面的认识：(1)马达加斯加哺乳动物的起源、生物地理和进化，马达加斯加哺乳动物是高度地方性和不平衡的；(2)冈瓦纳大陆其他陆块哺乳动物的生物地理学；(3)马达加斯加与非洲大陆分离的模式和时间；(4)哺乳动物向（?）从)岛上。在哺乳动物中对马达加斯加独特的灵长类动物群（狐猴）的起源和进化特别感兴趣，这些动物群仅从第四纪亚化石记录中已知。

The investigators will explore promising geologic deposits in the Madagascar for the remains of Cretaceous mammals. If the expedition is successful, the discoveries could revolutionize our understanding of: (1) the origin, biogeography and evolution of the Madagascar mammalian fauna, which id highly endemic and unbalanced; (2) the biogeography of mammals on other Gondwanan land masses; (3) the pattern and timing of the separation of the Madagascar from the African mainland; (4) the pattern and timing of mammals faunal migrations to (? and from) the island. Of especial interest among the mammals in the origin and evolution of Madagascar's unique primate (lemur) fauna, groups which are known only from the sub-fossil Quaternary record.