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

该奖项支持美国与阿根廷地质学家和古生物学家合作研究巴塔哥尼亚南部白垩纪晚期至第三纪早期海洋化石的项目。美国的捐款将集中在十足甲壳类动物（螃蟹）上。对南半球几个地点的白垩纪和第三纪十足甲壳类动物群的研究为新西兰和南极洲之间的动物关系提供了明确的证据，而这些动物群与南美洲十足类动物之间的关系则不太清楚。最近对阿根廷中部拉潘帕省和罗内格罗省的古新世十足类动物的研究表明，这些生物与热带和亚热带大西洋群落有亲缘关系。因此，大西洋和南环太平洋地区之间的生物地理界限必须位于巴塔哥尼亚南部。该奖项将允许美国调查人员加入阿根廷的一个实地项目，该项目正在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海相化石岩石。这是一个独特的机会，可以收集有关这些螃蟹在偏远地区分布的宝贵信息。该项目的目的是：1)收集、描述和分类巴塔哥尼亚南部白垩纪和第三纪的十足甲壳类动物；2)确定该动物群对南方高纬度地区古生物地理演化的意义；3)评估这些生物对我们理解现代十足动物的起源和进化的意义。这项工作对于建立一个解释南极洲西摩岛重要的白垩纪和第三纪动物群的古环境框架具有重要意义。

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.