The Crazy Mountains Basin Project: Composition, Diversity, and Evolution of Paleocene Mammalian Faunas

疯狂山脉盆地项目：古新世哺乳动物区系的组成、多样性和演化

• 批准号: 0308902
• 负责人: David Krause
• 金额: $ 13.84万
• 依托单位: SUNY at Stony Brook
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0308902&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Crazy; Mountains; Basin; Project; Composition

The Crazy Mountains Basin Project: Composition, Diversity, and Evolution of Paleocene Mammalian FaunasDavid Krause (Stony Brook University)Jonathan Bloch (South Dakota School of Mines & Technology)(EAR-0308902)ABSTRACTWith the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs, the Paleocene epoch (roughly 65 to 55 million years ago) was a critically formative interval in the evolutionary history of modern mammals. Turnover in the composition of the mammalian fauna during the Paleocene, and particularly between the Torrejonian (To) and Tiffanian (Ti) North American Land Mammal Ages, was among the most significant during the Cenozoic, the so-called Age of Mammals. It is then that mammals underwent rapid diversification and became dominant land animals. The causes and mechanisms of Paleocene mammalian faunal turnover have been variously ascribed to either climatic change or pseudo-extinction but the data required to test these hypotheses have, heretofore, been wanting. This proposal seeks to document the pattern of To/Ti mammalian faunal turnover by employing massive samples of largely undescribed fossils, collected by Stony Brook University field crews in the 1980s and early 1990s from the eastern Crazy Mountains Basin (CMB), Montana. When studied in the context of the careful litho-, magneto- and biostratigraphic analyses proposed here, the samples from these localities will provide data crucial for a revision of the biochronology of the Paleocene epoch. The proposed project will also result in exploitation and realization of the vast potential of a poorly known and under-sampled site, the Bangtail locality, on the western side of the basin. Limestones from Bangtail have begun to yield some of the most complete and exquisitely preserved mammalian skulls and skeletons yet known for the Paleocene. The samples from both the eastern and western sides of the CMB will significantly augment knowledge of the phylogeny, functional morphology, and paleoecology of Paleocene mammals. Identification, description, and analysis of these samples, coupled with new paleoclimatic data based on paleofloras and stable isotope analyses of mammalian teeth, will be employed to address long unanswered and increasingly controversial questions concerning the mechanisms and causes of rapid faunal turnover during the Paleocene.

疯狂山脉盆地项目：古新世哺乳动物群的组成、多样性和进化David Krause（斯托尼布鲁克大学）Jonathan Bloch（南达科他州矿业技术学院）（N-0308902）摘要随着非鸟类恐龙的灭绝，古新世时期（大约6500万至5500万年前）是现代哺乳动物进化史上一个关键的形成时期。 古新世哺乳动物区系组成的更替，特别是在Torrejonian（To）和Tiffanian（Ti）北美陆地哺乳动物时代之间，是新生代（所谓的哺乳动物时代）最重要的更替之一。 哺乳动物经历了迅速的多样化，并成为占主导地位的陆地动物。 古新世哺乳动物区系更替的原因和机制被不同地归因于气候变化或伪灭绝，但测试这些假设所需的数据，迄今为止，一直希望。 该提案旨在通过采用大量未描述的化石样本来记录To/Ti哺乳动物区系的更替模式，这些化石是斯托尼布鲁克大学野外工作人员在20世纪80年代和90年代初从蒙大拿州疯狂山脉盆地（CMB）东部收集的。 当在这里提出的仔细的岩石，磁力和生物地层学分析的背景下进行研究时，这些地方的样品将提供古新世时代生物年代学修订的关键数据。 拟议的项目还将开发和实现盆地西侧一个鲜为人知和采样不足的地点-邦泰尔地点的巨大潜力。 来自邦泰尔的石灰岩已经开始产生一些最完整和保存最精美的古新世哺乳动物头骨和骨骼。 来自CMB东部和西部的样品将大大增加对古新世哺乳动物的发育、功能形态和古生态学的了解。 鉴定，描述和分析这些样本，再加上新的古气候数据的基础上古植物群和稳定同位素分析的哺乳动物牙齿，将用于解决长期悬而未决的和越来越有争议的问题，有关的机制和原因，在古新世动物群的快速周转。