US - Peru Planning Visit: Planning a Collaborative Program of Vertebrate Paleontology in Northwestern Peru

这项美国-秘鲁计划访问奖将通过佛罗里达大学(UF)和皮乌拉国立大学(UNP)之间的合作伙伴关系，在秘鲁西北部建立脊椎动物古生物学合作项目。该项目将在密歇根大学大卫·斯蒂德曼博士的指导下支持一名高级研究员和两名美国研究生，他们将与北卡罗来纳大学古生物研究所所长让-诺埃·L·马丁内斯博士及其学生合作。来自两所学校的学生和教授将计划一个研究项目，并将在2012-13年度寻求更大规模的资金。长期以来，研究人员一直对美洲热带动物的分布和多样性以及气候变化(冰期-间冰期周期)如何影响这些现象感兴趣。计划中的访问将集中在塔拉拉焦油渗漏(TTS)的实地和实验室研究，这是一个沥青天然陷阱，拥有丰富的2万年前的两栖动物、爬行动物、鸟类和哺乳动物化石。自20世纪50年代和60年代以来，TTS一直没有正式挖掘。然而，过去气候更潮湿的证据来自之前挖掘的TTS化石，这表明TTS曾经一定存在过更丰富的植物群落。马丁内斯博士是秘鲁哺乳动物化石研究的主要权威，他和他的学生在皮乌拉周围500公里范围内的许多地方发现了脊椎动物化石。UNP团队将研究由此产生的哺乳动物化石，而UF团队将研究鸟类化石，两个团队都将研究两栖和爬行动物化石。对化石的分析将极大地提高对这一气候敏感地区过去气候变化的理解。这一国际合作将提供机会，培训、教育和聚集来自美国和秘鲁的学生和研究人员。除了与他们的秘鲁同事建立合作关系外，密歇根大学的科学家还将在UNP讲课，而两名美国研究生将获得该奖项的国际研究经验。此外，秘鲁本科生将有机会前往密歇根大学，与密歇根大学的学生一起开展有针对性的研究项目。最后，这些访问有可能产生一个更大的国际项目，扩大我们对美洲热带过去气候变化如何影响该地区生物多样性的了解。

This U.S. - Peru planning visit award will establish a collaborative program of vertebrate paleontology in northwestern Peru by forming a partnership between University of Florida (UF) and Universidad Nacional de Piura (UNP). The program will support one senior researcher and two U.S. graduate students under the direction of Dr. David Steadman from UF and they will collaborate with Dr. Jean-Noël Martinez, Director of the Institute of Paleontology at UNP, and his students. Students and professors from both schools will plan a research program for which larger-scale funding will be pursued in 2012-13. Researchers have long been interested in the distribution and diversity of animals in the American tropics, and how changing climates (glacial-interglacial cycles) have affected these phenomena. The planning visits will focus on field and laboratory research at the Talara Tar Seeps (TTS), an asphaltic natural trap with abundant 20,000 year old fossils of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There have been no formal excavations at the TTS since the 1950s and 1960s. However, evidence of a wetter past climate comes from previously excavated TTS fossils, indicating a richer plant community must have existed once at TTS. Dr. Martinez, a leading authority on Peruvian fossil mammals, and his students have discovered vertebrate fossils in many localities within 500 kilometers of Piura. The UNP team will study the resulting mammal fossils, whereas the UF team will study the bird fossils, and both teams will study the amphibian and reptile fossils. The analyses of fossils will vastly improve the understanding of past climate change in this climatically sensitive region.This international collaboration will provide opportunities to train, educate, and bring together students and researchers from the United States and Peru. In addition to establishing collaborations with their Peruvian colleagues, UF scientists will give lectures at UNP while two U.S. graduate students will receive an international research experience from this award. Furthermore, Peruvian undergraduate students will be given the opportunity to travel to UF and develop directed research projects with UF students. Finally, these visits have the potential to generate a larger international program that will expand our knowledge of how changing past climates in the American tropics have affected the biodiversity of the region.