SGER: Morphological Study of a Key Avian Fossil from Antarctica: New Data from X-Ray Computed Tomography and Histology

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Clarke has submitted an SGER proposal to support time critical work on bird fossil that must be returned to Argentina by the end of March 2004. The specialized work is x-ray computed tomography imaging to gather detailed anatomical data in a non-destructive fashion. This fossil is a late Cretaceous bird fossil and is important because of its relative completeness and because existing information suggests that it may be a key link in evolution of birds that demonstrates the importance of the Antarctic Peninsula region for bird evolution.The rational for consideration of this as an SGER award is that the work must be completed very soon, before the fossil is returned to Argentina. It would be detrimental to the fossil material to require that the PI's seek to return it to the US at some later time. Also, the work involves two novel approaches to study of fossil material and this work would inform scientific discussions and debates about avian evolution that is occurring now. Delay of acquisition of these data would mean that this debate would not benefit from the new data and this would at least leave open questions in the discussions about bird evolution. Hence, it is very reasonable to use this mechanism to get this work done now, while the material is undergoing other non-destructive work and while the data would be particularly timely to scientific debates.The SGER program does not allow external merit review (see Grant Proposal Guide: NSF 03-041, part II.D.1).