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

为EAGER奖提供了资金，该奖项将限制和调查在加拿大埃尔斯米尔岛一处遗址暴露的森林木乃伊遗骸的年龄。对2009年实地考察期间收集的古土壤样本进行的初步地层对比和孢粉学分析，以及对木材种类的鉴定表明，这种木乃伊化的材料可能是侏罗纪时期的。因此，这些遗骸可能比在北极其他地点描述的第三纪木乃伊材料要早得多，并且可能是全球唯一报道的这一古代木乃伊材料。木乃伊材料的良好保存提供了研究的机会，这是化石材料不可能做到的。例如，可以从干尸树干中提取单个成分，如á-cellulose，以确定年分辨率的环境水分和相对湿度特征，而从干尸材料和同一物种的当代样品中比较特定的植物成分，如叶片角质层，可以用来阐明该物种的古地理和进化。最后，植物木乃伊材料中单个细胞器的特征可以用来确定古环境条件，如光强度。使大型木乃伊化石得以完好保存的条件，也可能使其他无法在化石记录中保存下来的大型和微型化石得以保存，例如甲虫群。这种材料的存在也为阐明有机物质在地质时间尺度上的保存机制提供了机会。考虑到木乃伊沉积物的假设侏罗纪时代和森林材料的精美保存，该遗址提供了独特的机会来表征侏罗纪时期的古物理，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.