EAGER: Characterization of Potentially Jurassic-Age Mummified Organic Material, Ellesmere Island, Canada.

资金被提供给一个急切的奖项，该奖项将限制和调查暴露在加拿大埃尔斯米尔岛上的木乃伊森林遗骸的年龄。对2009年实地考察期间采集的古土壤样本进行的初步地层对比和孢粉分析，以及木材种类鉴定，表明这块木乃伊的年龄可能是侏罗纪。因此，这些遗骸可能比北极其他地点描述的第三纪年代的木乃伊材料要古老得多，也将是全球报道的唯一这种古老的木乃伊材料。木乃伊材料的良好保存为研究提供了化石材料所不可能提供的机会。例如，可以从木乃伊的树干中提取单独的成分，如α-纤维素，以确定年分辨率下的环境水分和相对湿度特征，而从木乃伊材料和同一物种的当代样本中比较特定的植物成分，例如叶角质层，可以用来阐明该物种的古地理和进化。最后，木乃伊植物材料中单个细胞器的特征可以用来确定古环境条件，如光照强度。导致木乃伊大型化石得到妥善保存的条件也可能允许保存其他不会在化石记录中保存的大型和微型化石，例如甲虫动物群。这种材料的存在也为阐明地质时间尺度上有机质保存的机制提供了机会。考虑到木乃伊沉积物的假设侏罗纪时代和森林材料的精致保存，该遗址提供了独特的机会来描述侏罗纪的古物理、植物和环境条件，是一个非常有价值的科学调查现场。

Funds are provided for an EAGER award that will constrain and investigate the age of mummified forest remains that are exposed at a site on Ellesmere Island, Canada. Initial stratigraphic correlation and palynological analyses of a paleosol sample collected during a site visit in 2009, and wood species identification, suggest that this mummified material may be Jurassic in age. Therefore, these remains may be significantly older than the Tertiary dated mummified material described at other sites in the Arctic and would be the only mummified material of this antiquity reported globally. The excellent preservation of mummified material offers investigative opportunities that are not possible with fossilized material. For example individual components, such as á-cellulose may be extracted from mummified tree trunks to determine environmental water and relative humidity characteristics at annual resolution, while comparison of specific plant components, e.g. leaf cuticles, from mummified material and contemporary samples of the same species may be used to elucidate the paleogeography and evolution and of that species. Finally, the characterization of individual organelles in mummified plant material may be used to determine paleoenvironmental conditions such as light intensity.Conditions that lead to the exquisite preservation of mummified macrofossils may also permit the preservation of other macro- and microfossils that would not be preserved in the fossil record, e.g. beetle fauna. The presence of this material also presents the opportunity to elucidate mechanisms for organic matter preservation over geological time scales. Given the hypothesized Jurassic age of the mummified deposits and the exquisite preservation of the forest material, this site presents the unique opportunity to characterize paleo-physical, botanical and environmental conditions during the Jurassic and is an exceedingly valuable field site for scientific investigation.