Collaborative Research: Life History Strategies, Growth Rates, and Microstructural Character Evolution Across the Coelurosaurian/Avialan Transition

摘要：合作研究——跨虚龙/鸟过渡的生活史策略、生长速率和微观结构特征演化。鸟类（飞禽类恐龙）在现存的动物中是独一无二的，它们的生长速度非常快。他们如何获得这种能力不得而知。在我们的研究中，我们将重建最早的鸟类和它们最近的祖先——虚骨龙恐龙的生长过程。我们将通过将年龄估计（通过生长线计数获得）与化石物种多样性的大小估计相结合来做到这一点。从这些结果中，我们将能够定量地评估鸟类生长速度是何时以及如何产生的，并确定第一批鸟类是简单的有羽毛的恐龙还是生理上的生物物种。除了帮助我们了解生活在我们这个世界上种类最多的动物群体是如何形成的之外，这项研究的更广泛的影响包括：1)建立一个万维网网站，让非专业人士和公众可以从中了解科学研究；2)为本科生和研究生提供高级科学培训，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的学生；3)为我们在古生物学方面的公开和非主要大学讲座提供材料。

ABSTRACT: COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH--LIFE HISTORY STRATEGIES, GROWTH RATES AND MICROSTRUCTURAL CHARACTEREVOLUTION ACROSS THE COELUROSAURIAN/AVIALAN TRANSITIONGregory M. Erickson. Kristina Curry-Rogers, Mark Norell Birds (avialan dinosaurs) are unique among living animals in showing extremely rapid growth rates. How they attained this capacity is unknown. In our research we will reconstruct the growth of the earliest birds and their closest ancestors, the coelurosaurian dinosaurs. We will do this by coupling age estimates (garnered through growth line counts) with size estimates for a diversity of fossil species. From the results we will be able to quantitatively assess when and how avian growth rates were generated and determine whether the first birds were simply feathered dinosaurs or physiological equivalents to living species. Aside from helping us to understand how the most speciose group of animals living in our world came to came to be, broader impacts of this research include: 1) establishing a World Wide Web site from which the lay pubic and professions can learn about scientific research, 2) providing advanced scientific training to undergraduate and graduate students including those from underrepresented groups, and 3) providing material for our public and non-major collegiate lectures in paleontology.