Paleobiology of Decapod Crustaceans from Southern Patagonia:A Link with Antarctica

该奖项支持美国对与阿根廷地质学家和古生物学家合作的项目的贡献，该项目旨在研究巴塔哥尼亚南部白垩纪晚期到第三纪早期的海洋化石。 美国的贡献将集中于十足目甲壳类动物（螃蟹）。 对南半球多个地点的白垩纪和第三纪十足目甲壳类动物群的研究提供了新西兰和南极洲之间动物群关系的明确证据，以及这些动物群和南美洲十足目动物之间不太为人所知的关系。 最近对阿根廷中部拉潘帕省和罗内格罗省的古新世十足目动物的研究表明，这些生物与热带和亚热带大西洋群落有亲缘关系。 因此，大西洋和环太平洋南部地区之间的生物地理边界必定位于巴塔哥尼亚南部。 该奖项将使美国研究人员能够加入阿根廷的一项实地计划，该计划计划研究巴塔哥尼亚西南部偏远地区的白垩纪和早第三纪含化石海洋岩石。 这是收集有关这些螃蟹在偏远地区分布的宝贵信息的独特机会。 该项目的目标是： 1）收集、描述和分类来自巴塔哥尼亚南部白垩纪和第三纪的十足目甲壳类动物； 2）确定该动物群对南部高纬度地区古生物地理演化的影响； 3）评估这些生物体对我们理解现代十足动物的起源和进化的重要性。 这项工作对于创建一个古环境框架来解释南极洲西摩岛重要的白垩纪和第三纪动物群非常重要。

This award supports a US contribution to a collaborative project with Argentine geologists and paleontologists to study late Cretaceous to early Tertiary marine fossils in southern Patagonia. The US contribution will focus on decapod crustaceans (crabs). Studies of Cretaceous an dTertiary decapod crustacean faunas from several sites in the southern hemisphere has provided clear evidence of faunal relationships between New Zealand and Antarctica, and less well understood relationships between those faunas and the decapods of South America. Recent study of Paleocene decapods from La Pampa and R o Negro provinces, central Argentina, has suggested affinities of these organisms with tropical and subtropical Atlantic communities. Thus, the biogeographic boundaries between the Atlantic and southern circum-Pacific regions must lie within southern Patagonia. This award will allow the US investigators to join an Argentine field program that is being planned to study Cretaceous and early Tertiary fossiliferous marine rocks in remote regions of southwestern Patagonia. This is a unique opportunity to gather valuable information about the distribution of these crabs in a remote region. The objectives of this project are: 1) to collect, describe,a nd classify the decapods crustaceans from Cretaceous and Tertiary exposures in southern Patagonia; 2) to determine the implications of this fauna for the paleobiogeographic evolution of the southern high latitudes; and 3) to assess the significance of these organisms to our understanding of the origin and evolution of modern decapods. This work is important to creating a paleoenvironmental framework for interpretation of the important Cretaceous and Tertiary faunas from Seymour Island, Antarctica.