Reconstructing Rivers: Interpreting the Cretaceous Paleo-environment of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah - REU Site

这个为期八周的项目由Gustavus Adolphus学院主办，将为参与者提供一个特殊的机会，为沉积地质学的及时研究做出贡献。8名本科生、2名助教和PI将通过实地研究，调查犹他州东北部和中东部雪松山组（Cedar Mountain Formation， CMF）下白垩纪地层的沉积历史。为了更好地了解CMF的分布和沉积过程，参与者将在明尼苏达大学的圣安东尼瀑布实验室设计和开发河流沉积学实验。最近在CMF发现的恐龙化石使古生物学家认识到，以前被认为在北美白垩纪中期灭绝的大型蜥脚类动物仍然存在。目前，五个学术和政府研究小组正在进行化石挖掘和地质年代学研究。然而，沉积学分析，特别是表征恐龙栖息地和河流过程的相解释，在CMF相对不发达。该项目将建立在PI四年来以学生为中心的恐龙国家纪念碑及其周围研究的历史基础上，其中包括2002年夏季的REU项目。在2003年夏季，该项目将在地理上扩大到包括犹他州中东部和拱门国家纪念碑的CMF露头。本研究项目将逐步培养学生对CMF的理解和环境解释的研究技能。这个项目的结果将对北美古生物学家非常重要，因此将为学生参与者提供他们研究的相关性的直接感觉。在整个项目中，PI和访问科学家将培养学生对观察、解释和实验的思考。与过去一样，PI将以实现参与者性别、地理分布和少数民族地位的多样性为明确目标进行招募。

This eight-week project, to be hosted by Gustavus Adolphus College, will provide participants with an exceptional opportunity to contribute to timely research in Sedimentary Geology. Eight undergraduate students, two student Teaching Assistants, and the PI will investigate, through field research, the sedimentary history of fossil-bearing Lower Cretaceous strata of the Cedar Mountain Formation (CMF) in northeast and east central Utah. In order to gain a better understanding of the processes of distribution and deposition of the CMF, participants will design and develop experiments in fluvial sedimentology at the University of Minnesota's Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory.Recent discoveries of dinosaur fossil localities in the CMF have led paleontologists to recognize that large sauropods, previously thought to be extinct in North America in mid-Cretaceious time, were still extant. Currently, five academic and governmental research groups have fossil excavations and geochronologic study underway. Yet sedimentologic analysis, especially facies interpretation to characterize dinosaur habitats and fluvial processes, is relatively undeveloped in the CMF. The proposed project will build on the PI's four-year history of student-centered research in and around Dinosaur Naitonal Monument, which has included an REU project during summer 2002. During summer 2003, the project will be geographically expanded to include CMF outcrops in east central Utah and in Arches National Monument.This research project will progressively develop students' research skills toward an understanding and environmental interpretation of the CMF. 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 observation, interpretation, and experimentation. As in the past, the PI will recruit with the explicit goal of achieving diversity in gender, geographic distribution, and minority status of participants.