Workshop: Sino-US Collaborative Research on Critical Transitions In History Of Life; Denver, Colorado; October 5-14 2007

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Chinese and American fossil sites, collections, and scientists are among the best in the world. Important American paleontological sites have been known for more than a century and have led to major reference collections in national and regional museums across the United States. The paleontological exploration of China has just begun in the last decade and spectacular finds are being made including the feathered dinosaur sites of Laoning Province and the Cambrian explosion faunas of Yunnan Province. The prospects of major new discoveries being made are great. There are many intervals of Earth history where American and Chinese paleontological resources complement one another and demand to be studied in a coordinated fashion in order to maximize results. Long term collaboration between American and Chinese paleontologists has focused on several levels where life experienced some critical transitions. These critical transitions have disproportionately shaped the history of earth and the evolution of its diverse biota. Examples include the Ordovician radiation of marine animals, the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction and subsequent biotic recovery, and the Cenozoic uplift of the Tibetan plateau and its climatic and evolutionary impact. Whereas major advances in our understanding of these critical transitions have come in the last fifteen years out of largely independent discoveries and research programs in China and the United States, there is potential for even greater progress in our understanding of these critical transitions through scientific collaboration. Workshops on this topic have been previously held in November of 2005 in Washington DC and June of 2006 in Beijing China supported respectively by NSF-US and NSF-China). PIs are proposing a third workshop to be held in Denver to continue joint discussions and to develop a concrete plan for collaborative paleontological and geological research on three critical transitions: The Ordovician transition of marine faunas, The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction and subsequent recovery, and the Cenozoic uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and its climatic and evolutionary impact. The proposed workshop has broad implications for enhancing our general understanding of environmental controls on the evolution of life by formalizing a collaborative program between the US and Chinese Earth Sciences community focused on the critical transitions. This collaboration will involve paleontologists, geochronologists, isotope and organic geochemists, and sedimentologists, and will forge the development and use of large databases such as the Paleobiology Database (PBDB) and stimulate integrated multidisciplinary research between the US and Chinese scientists. These activities will create a network of Chinese and American scientists with common goals that will facilitate the sharing of knowledge and information. The workshop coordinators will strive to create opportunities for junior scientists and students to be involved in international collaborations.