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分裂了一个单一的热带海洋，这一事件对生物进化、生态系统和海洋循环产生了深远的影响。保存在东太平洋和加勒比沉积物中的化石包括连续的热带美洲生物群，它们在过去1500万年里因加勒比海-太平洋大航道的收缩和关闭而发生了戏剧性的变化。基于太平洋和加勒比海地区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的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海动物群进行比较。该项目由Laurel Collins及其同事完成，涉及在厄瓜多尔收集新近系海洋化石，准备和鉴定这些化石，确定地层层序的年代和古环境，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，并将这些收集的数据用于研究。已确定的动物群将包括钙质超微浮游动物、有孔虫、非典型珊瑚、苔藓动物、棘皮动物、软体动物、介形动物和鱼类。该数据库的新模式将跟踪收集和鉴定分类群的进度，帮助确定样品的年代和对比地层，并作为所有动物群产状数据、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产生迄今为止对环境变化和隔离对海洋生物的长期影响的最准确评估，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.