DISSERTATION RESEARCH: MARINE MAMMAL FEEDING GUILDS: DIVERSITY ANDOVERTURN THROUGH THE CENOZOIC

论文研究：海洋哺乳动物饲养协会：新生代的多样性和转变

• 批准号: 0508836
• 负责人: Blaire Van Valkenburgh
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-06-01 至 2006-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0508836&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; MARINE; MAMMAL; FEEDING

Dissertation Research: Marine Mammal Feeding Guilds: Diversity and Overturn Through the CenozoicBlaire Van Valkenburgh and Peter J. AdamUniversity of California, Los AngelesMarine mammals constitute a diverse and unrelated assemblage of animals with an obligate dependence on marine resources. Carnivorous marine mammals include cetaceans (whales and dolphins), pinnipeds (seals and sea lions), and sea otters. Within these groups are a wide variety of feeding strategies that can be distinguished based on functional characters of the skull and teeth as well as models that predict scaling relationships between predator and prey body sizes. This project will document the diversity of feeding types and body sizes in marine mammals over the past 50 million years, and infer incidence of competition and replacement within and between marine mammal communities at both local and global scales.Temporal and spatial distributions of living and fossil marine mammals will be determined from the literature and a survey of museum collections. Fossil taxa will be categorized into one of four broad feeding strategies observed in modern marine mammals based on functional skull and tooth characteristics. These strategies include masticatory (e.g., sea otters), piercing (e.g., most dolphins), suction (e.g., walrus), and filter feeding (e.g., baleen whales). Within each strategy, feeding regimes of fossil taxa will be further resolved into more descriptive subcategories (e.g., pelagic squid-eating suction feeders versus benthic bivalve-eating suction feeders). Methods for predicting body size in fossil taxa will also be developed and applied to models of predator:prey body size relationships to establish probable prey sizes taken by fossil marine mammals. Distribution and diversity data will be further interpreted in relation to taphonomic (preservational) biases and major paleoceanographic events of the Cenozoic. Patterns of turnover and convergence in feeding strategies among and within various marine mammal lineages will reveal cases of competition for food resources and its effects. Taken together, these data will contribute to a much better understanding of dynamic Cenozoic marine communities. This study is the first comprehensive examination of any Cenozoic marine vertebrate community. Although interpretation of feeding strategies in fossil taxa is a common practice, interpretation of these data in a broader paleoecological sense is rarely realized. This study not only provides a comprehensive summary of ecological roles of marine mammals through time; it also provides a framework from which ecological roles of other large marine predators (e.g., sharks, squid) can be interpreted. All data will be archived in the public domain for use by other researchers. The investigators will develop undergraduate research projects and activities for under-performing high schools in urban Los Angeles based on this research project.

论文研究：海洋哺乳动物饲养协会：通过新生代的多样性和颠覆Blaire货车Valkenburgh和Peter J. Adam加州大学洛杉矶分校海洋哺乳动物构成了一个多样化的和不相关的动物组合，对海洋资源具有强制性的依赖性。食肉海洋哺乳动物包括鲸目动物（鲸鱼和海豚），鳍足动物（海豹和海狮）和海獭。在这些群体中有各种各样的进食策略，可以根据头骨和牙齿的功能特征以及预测捕食者和猎物身体大小之间的比例关系的模型来区分。该项目将记录过去5000万年来海洋哺乳动物食性和体型的多样性，并推断局部和全球范围内海洋哺乳动物群落内部和之间的竞争和替代发生率。活的和化石海洋哺乳动物的时空分布将通过文献和博物馆藏品调查来确定。化石类群将被归类为四个广泛的喂养策略之一，在现代海洋哺乳动物的基础上功能头骨和牙齿的特点。这些策略包括咀嚼（例如，海獭），刺穿（例如，大多数海豚），抽吸（例如，海象），和滤食（例如，须鲸）。在每种策略中，化石分类群的摄食方式将进一步分解为更具描述性的亚类（例如，浮游乌贼吃吸盘与底栖双壳类吃吸盘）。预测化石类群的身体大小的方法也将被开发和应用到捕食者模型：猎物的身体大小关系，以建立可能的猎物的大小采取的化石海洋哺乳动物。分布和多样性的数据将进一步解释有关的埋藏（沉积）的偏见和主要的古海洋事件的新生代。各种海洋哺乳动物谱系之间和内部的摄食策略的周转和趋同模式将揭示食物资源竞争及其影响的情况。总之，这些数据将有助于更好地了解动态新生代海洋群落。这项研究是第一次全面检查任何新生代海洋脊椎动物群落。虽然在化石类群的喂养策略的解释是一种常见的做法，这些数据在更广泛的古生态意义上的解释很少实现。这项研究不仅提供了一个全面的总结海洋哺乳动物的生态作用，随着时间的推移，它也提供了一个框架，从其他大型海洋捕食者（如，鲨鱼，鱿鱼）可以解释。所有数据将在公共领域存档，供其他研究人员使用。调查人员将根据本研究项目为洛杉矶市区表现不佳的高中制定本科生研究项目和活动。