Collaborative Research: A Fully Geographically and Stratigraphically Resolved Cretaceous-Tertiary Biostratigraphic Database From Seymour Island, Antarctica

该奖项支持一个项目，该项目通过融合两项独立开发但免费应用的生物地层学数值技术来分析南极洲西摩岛的动物群分布模式，这两项技术是在之前资助的两个试点项目中开发的。地层投影分析(SPA)允许将地理上分布的动物群的完整数据集投影到二维横断面上。SPA是在Excel中为西摩岛的简单、表格、寒武纪-古新世地层开发的。该项目将测试SPA对岛上始新世的透镜状、不整合边界的地层单元的嵌套复合体的更广泛的适用性。将不整合面的位置从不同的地质图投影到显示动物群的横截面上，将发现不整合面的空间分辨率极限。在另一项试点研究中，用Visual Fortran开发的用于Windows环境下地层对比的约束优化算法(CONOP9)被证明是可行的，可以根据简约标准用最佳拟合区间取代概率置信度区间。最佳拟合区间通过利用单个地层剖面之间的不一致性而不是复合剖面中的空隙来提取更多信息，并保持与原始观测数据的更接近。该项目将扩大试点研究，纳入从坎帕尼亚到古新世地层的SPA完整数据库中提取的许多横断面。这种新方法的结合不仅将提高灭绝事件的分辨率，还将检验这样一种假设，即通过收集更多化石来提高分辨率的速度将存在渐近极限。新方法和完整数据库的结合将把对空隙频率分布的基本分析扩展到二维和三维。为了确保结果的广泛传播，该项目将汇编一个完整的西摩IS地理和地层解析数据库。大型动物群，并使普通数据库、电子表格和地理信息系统程序的用户可以方便地访问它。通过将他们的发现收集到一个易于查询的数据库中，该汇编将为先前由NSF资助的关于西摩尔岛的国际古生物学调查的遗产增加价值。并为未来的巡航提供更清晰的焦点。数字工具将与原始现场数据一起提供。最近为全球数据库倡议(古生物学数据库和Chronos)提供资金，认识到分析全球生物多样性和改进地质时间尺度的社会重要性。西摩岛数据库将可作为单独的动物群组合或连续横断面提取。这两项工作的标准数据单位。西摩号才是。数据库还将为公众提供对南半球最引人注目的化石矿藏之一的轻松访问。该项目是一个新的合作项目，将培训两所大学的研究生更广泛地使用现代数值方法。

This award supports a project to analyze faunal distribution patterns from Seymour Island, Antarctica by melding two independently developed, but complimentary, applied biostratigraphic numerical techniques developed in two previously funded pilot projects. Stratigraphic projection analysis (SPA) allows complete datasets of geographically distributed faunas to be projected into two-dimensional cross-sections. SPA was developed in Excel for the simple, tabular, Campanian-Paleocene strata of Seymour Island. This project will test the wider applicability of SPA against the nested complex of lenticular, disconformity-bound, stratal units in the Eocene of the island. The limits of spatial resolution of the disconformity surfaces will be found by projecting their positions from different geologic maps into the cross sections displaying the faunas. In the other pilot study, constrained optimization algorithms (CONOP9), developed in Visual Fortran for stratigraphic correlation in a Windows environment, proved feasible for replacing the probabilistic confidence intervals with best-fit intervals, based on parsimony criteria. The best-fit intervals extract more information and stay closer to the raw observations by exploiting the inconsistencies between individual stratigraphic sections rather than the gaps in a composite section. This project will extend the pilot study to incorporate numerous transects bootstrapped from the full SPA database for the Campanian to Paleocene strata. This combination of new methods will not only improve the resolution of the extinction event, but also test the hypothesis that there will be asymptotic limits to the rate at which the resolution can be improved by collecting more fossils. The combination of new methods and the full database will extend the fundamental analysis of gap frequency distributions to two and three dimensions. To ensure broad dissemination of the results, the project will compile a full geographically and stratigraphically resolved data base of Seymour Is. macrofaunas and make it readily accessible to users of common database, spreadsheet, and GIS programs. By gathering their findings into one easily interrogated database, the compilation will add value to the legacy of prior NSF-funded and international paleontological investigations on Seymour Is. and provide a sharper focus for future cruises. The numerical tools will be made available with the raw field data. The societal importance of analyses of global biodiversity and the refinement of the geologic time scale have both been recognized by the recent funding of global database initiatives (Paleobiology Database and Chronos). The Seymour Island database will be extractable as individual faunal assemblages or continual transects . the standard data units of these two endeavors. The Seymour Is. database will also provide easy access to the general public to one of the most remarkable fossil deposits in the southern Hemisphere. The project is a new collaboration which will train graduate students at both institutions in a wider spectrum of modern numerical methods.