Filling the Norian (Late Triassic) Gap in Tropical Tetrapod Diversity, Eastern North America

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9814475OlsenThis project seeks to collect and analyze new tetrapod material (both skeletal and footprint) in Norian-age (Late Triassic, 202-218 Ma) strata of the Newark Supergroup rift basins of eastern North America as a prelude to understanding Triassic faunal provinciality and the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction event. Analysis of tetrapod diversity from this time interval and geographic region is critical because of the unique time control afforded by the Newark Supergroup, particularly the Newark basin as a result of the NSF-funded Newark Basin Coring Project. This new material will allow tests of competing hypotheses concerning the rate and magnitude of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction in the continental rocks of eastern North America. Increased knowledge of Norian tetrapod diversity can be expected to not only yield insights into the world of the early Mesozoic, but more importantly give us a detailed understanding of the diversity patterns during one the largest mass extinctions of the last 600 million years. Images and morphological, phylogenetic, geographic, stratigraphic, and temporal databases will be made available through the Lamont Home Page of the World Wide Web and on CD.