Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoenvironments of the Tibetan Plateau (China)

合作研究：青藏高原晚新生代脊椎动物古生物与古环境(中国)(EAR 0958704和EAR 0958602)PIs：王晓明(LACM)和王洋(FSU)摘要这是一个多学科的国际合作项目，旨在研究青藏高原新生代脊椎动物化石和古环境。在过去的2000万年里，青藏高原的隆起和增长与区域和全球气候和环境的变化有关。逐渐凉爽和干燥的条件，可能与东亚冬季风的发展有关，似乎是一种长期趋势，并在生物群落中留下了深刻的印记。我们在西藏的札达、昆仑和柴达木盆地进行的初步勘探，得到了一批诱人的脊椎动物化石，包括哺乳动物、鱼类和海龟。柴达木盆地的上新世鱼类对西藏的干旱高度敏感，札达盆地的哺乳动物化石表明冰河时代的大型动物元素来自高原。总体而言，这些化石组合暗示着在中新世晚期到上新世(1200万-260万年前)的某个时候出现了一种地方性动物群。这笔新的拨款将使我们的研究计划大大扩展，努力获得对高原增长导致的动物地理障碍和环境波动的详细了解，以及这些深刻的变化如何影响该地区的哺乳动物。一个由古生物学家、构造地质学家、沉积地质学家、稳定同位素地球化学家和古地磁学家组成的国际团队将努力实现以下几个目标：(1)系统收集这些盆地中的哺乳动物和鱼类化石；(2)建立基于生物地层学和磁性地层学的区域年代格架；(3)重建沉积环境和盆地历史及其与周围山脉和生物事件的关系；(4)基于鱼类化石的系谱关系研究高原水系；(5)稳定同位素分析，以探索哺乳动物食草动物、植物群落、区域气候和水循环的变化；(6)基于动物群落演替、沉积和稳定同位素信息，探索与西藏崛起有关的环境影响。我们的古生物勘探结果可能是变革性的，因为探索不足的青藏高原产生了独特的化石，这些化石对环境变化和适应、动物地理障碍和冰河时代大型动物起源具有指导意义。在当前关于该地区过去生物世界和古环境的辩论中，脊椎动物化石填补了一个关键的缺失部分，因为高原上升到一个关键高度，为动物迁徙形成了一个强大的屏障，形成了新的排水系统，并从根本上影响了北半球晚新生代的气候。这些新数据预计将检验几个假说，这些假说涉及限于高原的几种独特哺乳动物的系统关系、高原生长的时间和速度、构造剧变的环境影响以及对哺乳动物、鱼类和植物的生物地理影响。

Collaborative Research: Late Cenozoic Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoenvironments of the Tibetan Plateau (China) (EAR 0958704 and EAR 0958602)PIs: Xiaoming Wang (LACM) and Yang Wang (FSU)ABSTRACTThis is a multidisciplinary, international collaborative project to study Cenozoic vertebrate fossils and paleoenvironments of the Tibetan Plateau. The uplift and growth of the Tibetan Plateau have been linked to regional and global climatic and environmental changes during the past 20 million years. Progressively cooler and drier conditions, possibly linked to the development of East Asian winter monsoon, seem to be a long-term trend and left deep marks on biological communities. Our preliminary explorations in Zanda, Kunlun Pass, and Qaidam basins in Tibet, funded by a prior NSF grant, have resulted in a tantalizing collection of fossil vertebrates including mammals, fishes, and turtles. Pliocene fishes from the Qaidam Basin are highly sensitive to the drying of Tibet and fossil mammals from the Zanda Basin suggest the origin of Ice Age megafauna elements from high plateau. Collectively these fossil assemblages hint at the emergence of an endemic fauna sometime in the late Miocene to Pliocene (12-2.6 million years ago).This new grant will allow us to greatly expand our research program that strives to gain a detailed understanding of zoogeographic barriers and environmental volatility resulting from the growth of the high plateau and how these profound changes have affected mammals in that region. An international team of paleontologists, structural and sedimentary geologists, stable isotope geochemists, and paleomagnetists, all experienced in fieldwork in Tibet, will attempt to achieve several objectives: (1) systematic collections of fossil mammals and fishes in these basins; (2) establishment of a regional chronologic framework based on the integration of biostratigraphy and magnetostratigraphy; (3) reconstruction of depositional environments and basin history and their relationships to the uplift of surrounding mountains and biologic events; (4) studies of the plateau drainage systems based on genealogical relationships of fossil fishes; (5) analyses of stable isotopes to explore changes in the diets of mammalian herbivores, plant communities, and regional climate and hydrological cycle; and (6) explorations of environmental implications related to the rising of the Tibet based on information of faunal successions, sedimentation, and stable isotopes.Results of our paleontological exploration are likely transformative because the poorly explored Tibetan Plateau yields unique fossils that are instructive about environmental changes and adaptations, zoogeographic barriers, and Ice Age megafauna origins. Fossil vertebrates fill a crucial missing piece of the puzzle in the current debate on past biological world and paleoenvironments in the region as the Plateau elevated to a critical height to form a formidable barrier for animal migration, to forge new drainage systems, and to fundamentally affect the climate of the northern hemisphere during the late Cenozoic. These new data are expected to afford testing of several hypotheses regarding systematic relationships of several unique mammals restricted to the plateau, timing and rate of growth of the plateau, environmental implications of the tectonic upheaval, and biogeographic consequences for mammals, fish and plants