Reconstructing Rivers: Fluvial Environments of Cretaceous Strata in Dinosaur National Monument, an REU Site

重建河流：REU 遗址恐龙国家保护区白垩纪地层的河流环境

• 批准号: 0139373
• 负责人: Julie Maxson
• 金额: $ 6.59万
• 依托单位: Gustavus Adolphus College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2002
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2002-05-01 至 2003-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0139373&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Reconstructing; Rivers; Fluvial; Environments; Cretaceous

This project will provide students with an exceptional opportunity to contribute to a timely, important research problem in sedimentary geology. Eight undergraduate students, along with two student Teaching assistants and the PI, will conduct field and laboratory research to determine the sedimentary history of fossil-bearing Lower Cretaceious strata in Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado. Recent discovery of a new bone bed within Dinosaur National Mounument (DNM) has led paleontologists to recognize that large sauropods, previously thought to be restricted to Eurasia in mid-Cretaceious time, were still extant in North America. Sedimentologic analysis, especially facies interpretation to characterize ancient dinosaur habitats, is relatively undeveloped in the Cretaceous strata that contain the newly discovered sauropod skeletons.This research project will progressively develop students' research skills toward understanding and interpreting the sedimentology of the Cretaceious Cedar Mountain formation. The project combines field work in fluvial sedimentology with analog modeling of fluvial processes. The results of this project will be highly significant to North American paleontologists, and will thus provide student participants with an immediate sense of the relevance of their research. Throughout the program, the PI and visiting scientists will develop students' thinking about conducting research based on observation and interpretation, and the development of actualistic facies models.

该项目将为学生提供一个特殊的机会，为沉积地质学中及时，重要的研究问题做出贡献。 八名本科生，沿着两名学生助教和PI，将进行实地和实验室研究，以确定恐龙国家保护区、犹他州和科罗拉多的化石地层的沉积历史。 最近在恐龙国家纪念碑（DNM）内发现了一个新的骨床，这让古生物学家认识到，以前被认为仅限于白垩纪中期欧亚大陆的大型蜥脚类恐龙，现在仍然存在于北美。 在白垩纪地层中，沉积学分析，特别是描述古代恐龙栖息地的相解释，相对来说还不发达。这个研究项目将逐步培养学生的研究技能，以理解和解释白垩纪雪松山地层的沉积学。 该项目将河流沉积学的实地工作与河流过程的模拟建模相结合。 这个项目的结果将是非常重要的北美古生物学家，因此将提供学生参与者与他们的研究的相关性的直接意义。 在整个计划中，PI和访问科学家将发展学生对基于观察和解释进行研究的思考，以及实际相模型的开发。