EAGER: Digital Cranial Atlas of Pachycephalosaurid Dinosaurs

EAGER：厚头龙科恐龙的数字颅骨图谱

• 批准号: 1053370
• 负责人: Mark Goodwin
• 金额: $ 1.57万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1053370&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Digital; Cranial; Atlas; Pachycephalosaurid

EAGER: A Digital Cranial Atlas of Pachycephalosaurid DinosaursMark GoodwinUniversity of California, BerkeleyThe Pachycephalosauria, or dome-headed dinosaurs, are characterized by a distinctive highly inflated dome with associated skull ornamentation. They are known primarily from the Upper Cretaceous (100-64 million years ago) Western Interior of North America and central Asia. Despite increasing sample sizes of domes, skulls and partial skulls in museum collections, considerable uncertainty and debate persist among students of pachycephalosaurs in regard to individual variation, ontogeny (growth and development), dome function, and systematic (how they are related to one another). Morphological or shape disparity between growth stages is increased by extended neoteny and late stage allometric growth in the Marginocephalia (pachycephalosaurids + ceratopsids), resulting in juveniles that look very different from adults of the same taxa. This pattern of extreme cranial growth trajectories potentially obscures evolutionary relationships, contributes to uncertain phylogenetic character selection, and may inflate dinosaur diversity estimates leading up to the terminal Cretaceous extinction event. Thus, it is critical to identify the relative growth stage of a pachycephalosaur cranium preceding any advanced analysis of comparative cranial morphology, variation, ontogeny and systematics. This project will begin to build a digital cranial atlas of North American pachycephalosaurid dinosaurs using non-destructive high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (HRCT) to: (1) confirm internal and external patterns of growth and development and determine the extent of cranial (skull) ontogenetic (growth) variation; (2) reevaluate and test opposing hypotheses and associated taxonomic, paleobiologic, and paleobiogeographic questions; (3) enhance recent histological studies and expand comparative cranial morphometric analyses; (4) advance evolutionary biology, paleontology, public education and outreach by serving the digital cranial atlas on www.ucmp.berkeley.edu. Proof of concept test scans and limited full scans of select pachycephalosaurid skulls were confirmed by the PI at the University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility (UTCT). Skulls of nearly all pachycephalosaurid species in the Museum of the Rockies, Royal Ontario Museum, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, and the UC Museum of Paleontology reflecting 100% of North American pachycephalosaur diversity will be accessed for this study. The PI will be using a NSF sponsored facility to do this work and will be developing the prototype of a larger geoinformatics project.Broader Impacts: This project will serve a broader audience in multiple ways. Students from the UC Berkeley undergraduate research apprentice program (URAP) will be engaged in building the digital atlas thus gaining new skills in digitization and engaging directly in scientific research from a paleobiological perspective. This project will serve to broaden their knowledge base and research experience as a UC Berkeley undergraduate. The PI will oversee the development of a user's guide to the atlas, which will allow the data to be used by students at both the high school and undergraduate levels and within a case study to be developed for UCMP's Understanding Science website.

EAGER：厚头龙类恐龙的数字颅骨地图集加州大学伯克利分校的马克·古德温厚头龙类，或称圆顶恐龙，其特征是一个独特的高度膨胀的圆顶与相关的头骨延伸。它们主要生活在上白垩纪（1亿至6400万年前），北美洲西部内陆和中亚。尽管博物馆收藏的圆顶，头骨和部分头骨的样本量不断增加，但在厚头龙类的学生中，关于个体变异，个体发育（生长和发育），圆顶功能和系统性（它们如何相互关联）的问题仍然存在相当大的不确定性和争论。形态或形状之间的差异增长阶段的延长幼态持续和后期异速生长的边缘头类（pachycephalosaurids + ceratopsids），导致青少年看起来非常不同的成年人相同的类群。这种极端的颅骨生长轨迹模式可能会模糊进化关系，导致不确定的系统发育特征选择，并可能导致白垩纪末灭绝事件的恐龙多样性估计膨胀。因此，它是至关重要的，以确定的相对生长阶段的厚头龙头骨之前，任何先进的分析比较颅骨形态，变异，个体发育和系统学。该项目将开始使用非破坏性高分辨率X射线计算机断层扫描（HRCT）建立北美厚头龙类恐龙的数字颅骨图谱，以：（1）确认生长和发育的内部和外部模式，并确定颅骨（头骨）个体发育（生长）变化的程度;（2）重新评估和测试对立的假设以及相关的分类学、古生物学和古生物地理学问题;（3）加强最近的组织学研究，扩大比较颅骨形态测量分析;（4）通过在www.ucmp.berkeley.edu上提供数字颅骨图谱，推进进化生物学、古生物学、公众教育和外联。德克萨斯大学高分辨率X射线CT设备（UTCT）的PI确认了对选定厚头龙类头骨的概念验证测试扫描和有限的全扫描。落基山脉博物馆、皇家安大略博物馆、皇家泰瑞尔古生物博物馆和加州大学古生物博物馆中几乎所有厚头龙类物种的头骨都将被用于这项研究，这些化石反映了100%的北美厚头龙类多样性。PI将使用NSF赞助的设施来做这项工作，并将开发一个更大的地理信息学项目的原型。更广泛的影响：这个项目将以多种方式为更广泛的受众服务。来自加州大学伯克利分校本科研究学徒计划（URAP）的学生将参与构建数字地图集，从而获得数字化的新技能，并从古生物学的角度直接从事科学研究。这个项目将有助于扩大他们的知识基础和研究经验，作为一个加州大学伯克利分校的本科生。PI将监督地图集用户指南的开发，这将允许高中和本科学生使用数据，并在为UCMP的理解科学网站开发的案例研究中使用。