Late Cenozoic Invertebrates, Protists and Fish of the Tropical Eastern Pacific Ocean: Database for Comparisons with Caribbean Taxa Through Time

9705289柯林斯巴拿马地峡的出现将一个单一的热带海洋分开，这一事件对生物进化，生态系统和海洋环流产生了深远的影响。东太平洋和加勒比海沉积物中保存的化石包括连续的热带美洲生物群，这些生物群在过去1500万年中发生了巨大变化，以应对加勒比-太平洋大海道的收缩和关闭。基于太平洋和加勒比化石收藏的研究将解决这些变化。该项目的主要目标是对厄瓜多尔沿海浅水化石动物群进行古生物调查，以便与以前收集的年龄和环境相似的加勒比动物群进行比较。 这个项目由月桂柯林斯和同事们负责，包括在厄瓜多尔收集新近纪海洋化石，准备和鉴定这些收藏品，确定其地层序列的年龄和古环境，为数据设计一个新的数据库，使该项目的数据在互联网上可用，并在研究中使用这些收藏品。已确定的动物群将包括钙质微型浮游生物、有孔虫、无礁珊瑚、苔藓虫、棘皮动物、软体动物、介形虫和鱼类。数据库的新模式将跟踪准备标本和确定分类群的进展情况，协助确定样品的年代和地层的相关性，并作为所有动物群出现数据、地图、地层剖面和地点信息的储存库。 基于这些数据的研究将导致迄今为止对环境变化和隔离对海洋生物的长期影响进行最准确的评估，数据模型将为实地古生物调查设定标准。

9705289 COLLINS The emergence of the Isthmus of Panama split apart a single tropical ocean, an event which had a profound impact on organismal evolution, ecologic systems and oceanic circulation. Fossils preserved in Eastern Pacific and Caribbean deposits comprise successive tropical American biotas that changed dramatically through the last 15 million years in response to the constriction and closure of the great Caribbean - Pacific seaway. Research based on Pacific and Caribbean collections of fossils will address these changes. The main goal of this project is a paleobiotic survey of shallow-water fossil faunas of coastal Ecuador, for comparison with Caribbean faunas of similar age and environment that were collected previously. This project, by Laurel Collins and colleagues, involves collecting Neogene marine fossils in Ecuador, preparing and identifying these collections, determining the ages and paleoenvironments of their stratigraphic sequences, designing a new database for the data, making the project's data available on the Internet, and using the collections in research. The identified faunas will include calcareous nannoplankton, foraminifera, ahermatypic corals, bryozoans, echinoderms, mollusks, ostracods and fish. The new model for the database will track the progress of preparing collections and identifying taxa, aid in dating samples and correlating strata, and serve as the repository for all faunal occurrence data, maps, stratigraphic sections, and locality information. Research based on these data will result in the most accurate assessment to date of the long-term effects of environmental change and isolation on marine biotas, and the data model will set the standard for field-based paleobiotic surveys.