U.S.-Japan Cooperative Research: Pinniped Evolution, Systematics and Biogeography in the North Pacific

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9417088 Archibald This project represents a collaborative research effort by San Diego State University, the Natural History Museum (Chiba) and the National Science Museum (Tokyo) in Japan. The project will focus on morphological study of well preserved skulls and limb elements of fossil pinnipeds (seals, sea lions and walruses) from Japan in rock deposits that span the late Oligocene through the Pleistocene (27-.5 million years ago). Of special interest are basal pinnipeds ancestral to the major groups of living pinnipeds. These archaic fossil pinnipeds from Japan are second only to those in the US in number and diversity of species, making them of critical importance for studies of early pinniped evolution. By comparative study of these specimens in Japan and the US, the investigators wil be able to test current hypotheses of the evolutionary relationships among pinnipeds and their biogeographic history in the North Pacific. Project funding will enable a leading expert in the US and a graduate student to study fossil pinnipeds housed in various museum collections in Japan over the next three years. *** This project in systematic biology and paleontology will enable the initiation of collaborative work between colleagues in Japan and the US. This valuable collaboration represents a necessary first step toward the development of a comprehensive assesssment of pinniped origins and diversification in the North Pacific.