Paleobiogeography of Austral Decapod Crustaceans

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Feldmann OPP 9526252 Abstract This award supports a study of fossil crabs and lobsters from the southern hemisphere with the goal of understanding the paleobiogephraphic framework of these fossils compared to molluscs and foraminifera. Field work and laboratory analysis of fossil crabs and lobsters from Antarctica and other high latitude sites in the southern hemisphere has now provided a robust data base from which the pattern of paleobiogeographic distribution can be discerned. Recent field work, supported by the National Science Foundation, has resulted in the collection of several new faunas which more narrowly constrain the northern influence of Antarctic fossil biotas than has been possible previously. Laboratory analysis of these faunas coupled with examination of significant museum fossil collections made by other workers in Madagascar and on Alexander Island, Antarctica, will assure that the principal investigator will have examined and confirmed the identification of all known decapods from the mid and high southern latitudes. As a result, knowledge of these organisms will be great enough to synthesize their geologic history and evolution which, in turn, will make it possible to test the paleobiogeographic framework of these animals against models based upon the more commonly preserved molluscs and microorganisms.