U.S.-Oman Planning Visit: Initiation of Collaborative Search for Paleogene Ungulates (Tethytheres, Cetaceans and Artiodactyls) in Oman

9876621马达这是一个规划访问奖教授桑德拉一。希拉姆学院生物系的马达尔教授、尼尔·A·2009年12月14日，在阿曼苏丹卡布斯大学地球科学系，美国肯特州立大学地质系的教授威尔斯和加州大学伯克利分校生态系统科学系的Lois J. Roe博士与萨米尔·汉纳、阿卜杜勒·拉扎克·阿尔·赛格和卡丽娜·霍恩教授举行了会晤。 这次访问的目的是制定一个合作研究项目，在阿曼的古新世-始新世沉积物中寻找早期鲸目动物、偶蹄动物、长鼻目动物和海妖的化石标本。 据认为，在新生代早期，这些哺乳动物群体起源于北方非洲或印度-巴基斯坦地区，或在这些地区周围多样化。 Madar教授和她的美国和阿曼同事将探索阿曼特提斯边缘相对未知区域的几个地点，以确定哪些地点最有希望进行进一步勘探。 对这些化石标本的研究应该增加关于这些有蹄类动物群体的早期进化和扩散的重要新知识，并应该扩大目前关于它们的古生物学和地理学的知识。

9876621MadarThis is a planning visit award for Professor Sandra I. Madar, of the Department of Biology at Hiram College, Professor Neil A. Wells, of the Department of Geology at Kent State University, and Dr. Lois J. Roe, of the Division of Ecosystem Sciences at the University of California at Berkeley, to meet with Professors Samir Hanna, Abdul Razak Al Saigh, and Carina Hoorn, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the Sultan Qaboos University in Oman. The purpose of the visit is to develop a cooperative research project to search the Paleocene-Eocene deposits in Oman for fossil specimens of early cetaceans, artiodactyls, proboscideans, and sirenians. It is thought that during the early Cenozoic these mammalian groups originated from or diversified around the regions of northern Africa or Indo-Pakistan. Professor Madar and her US and Omani colleagues will explore several locations in the relatively unknown area of the Tethys margin in Oman to determine which sites are the most promising for further exploration. The study of these fossil specimens should add significant new knowledge about the early evolution and dispersal of these ungulate groups, and should expand the current knowledge about their paleobiology and biogeography.