SGER: Salvage Recovery of an Extraordinary Paleocene Fossil Site in Northern Colombia: the Oldest Known Tropical Rainforest

SGER：哥伦比亚北部非凡古新世化石遗址的抢救：已知最古老的热带雨林

• 批准号: 0733725
• 负责人: Carlos Jaramillo
• 金额: $ 7.38万
• 依托单位: Smithsonian Institution
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-07-15 至 2008-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0733725&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Salvage; Recovery; Extraordinary; Paleocene

The Paleogene is recognized as an important time in floral and vertebrate history when angiosperms overtook gymnosperms in dominance, and mammals radiated and become the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. The fossil record of tropical rainforests, however, is very sparse because dense forest and thick soils cover rock exposures. Two Paleocene sites with well preserved plant megafossils and vertebrates from a tropical area (Tabaco Extendido Pit, and La Puente Pit) in northern Colombia will be flooded within the next one or two years following the normal operation of the Cerrejon mine. This project represents an emergency rescue operation during an intensive, six-month-long expedition to collect as many fossils as possible from these two sites before they are flooded, and the fossils are lost to science.The team from the Smithsonian and University of Florida conducting this expedition has substantial experience in scientific research, organization and education/outreach, which will be used to portray the results from this research to as wide a community as possible, including nongovernmental conservation agencies (e.g. WWF, Fundacion Natura), and museum exhibits. The discovery process of the research project will promote training at the graduate student level.

古近纪是植物和脊椎动物历史上被子植物取代裸子植物的重要时期，哺乳动物逐渐成为陆生脊椎动物的优势种。然而，热带雨林的化石记录非常稀少，因为茂密的森林和厚厚的土壤覆盖了岩石。哥伦比亚北方热带地区（Tabaco Extendido矿坑和La Puente矿坑）的两个古新世遗址保存完好的植物巨化石和脊椎动物将在Cerrejon矿山正常运营后的一两年内被淹没。这个项目代表了一个为期六个月的紧急救援行动，在这两个地点被洪水淹没之前，从这两个地点收集尽可能多的化石，化石被科学研究所丢失。来自史密森尼和佛罗里达大学的团队进行了这次探险，在科学研究，组织和教育/宣传方面有着丰富的经验，这些信息将用于向尽可能广泛的社区展示本研究的结果，包括非政府保护机构（如WWF、丰达西翁Natura）和博物馆展览。研究项目的发现过程将促进研究生一级的培训。