Cretaceous Vertebrates from Madagascar: A Window into the Biogeographic and Plate Tectonic History of Gondwana

马达加斯加的白垩纪脊椎动物：冈瓦纳生物地理学和板块构造史的一个窗口国家科学基金会提案大卫W。帕特里克M. O？作者声明：康纳作者：Joseph J. Sertich和Alan H.特纳摘要？中生代的后半期见证了构成冈瓦纳超大陆南部的陆块结构的深刻变化，对相关的陆地和淡水脊椎动物群产生了巨大的影响。马达加斯加位于冈瓦纳的中心附近，因为它分裂成它的组成部分。该提案旨在继续一个主要旨在发现白垩纪脊椎动物化石的项目。到目前为止，我们已经从岛上的晚白垩世脊椎动物的物种多样性增加了五倍，并发现了一些最完整和保存最完整的晚白垩世脊椎动物标本来自南半球，事实上，世界。许多新的分类群已被命名，描述和分析。但是，在马达加斯加广阔的、在古生物学和地质学上未经勘探的白垩纪岩石中，还有很多工作要做。通过持续的工作，我们相信马达加斯加？的脊椎动物群将成为南半球最著名的白垩纪动物群之一，也是与其他白垩纪冈瓦纳动物群进行比较的主要标准之一。我们建议继续从马达加斯加西北部的马哈赞加盆地的两个主要野外地区收集白垩纪晚期的陆生和淡水脊椎动物化石。 我们还建议将我们的努力扩大到马达加斯加西部的Morondava盆地，2010年的一次侦察探险在那里发现了一种巨大的蜥脚类恐龙，并且有可能从比Mahajanga盆地产生化石的地层更古老的地层中发现更多的标本。这些早期层位的发现将提供一个更深的时间背景，以解决有争议的地理和板块构造假说。与过去一样，我们的工作将努力让充满活力和有前途的年轻人参与，他们正在调查科学专业的职业生涯（高中和本科生），学习成为专业的古生物学家和地质学家（研究生），以及刚刚开始他们的职业生涯（博士后助理和入门级教授/馆长）。除了在广泛分布的科学期刊上发表文章外，我们将继续通过在流行杂志上发表文章，促进公共博物馆的展示，鼓励印刷媒体，广播和电视的报道，开发网站，以及通过学术和非专业观众的演讲活动，使我们的研究更广泛地为公众所知。最后，我们设立了马达加斯加Ankizy基金（www.ankizy.org;？ankizy？意味着什么？孩子们？马达加斯加语），其使命是建造学校（迄今为止有四所）和提供医疗保健（例如，向该岛偏远地区提供临时诊所、清洁威尔斯、蚊帐）的做法非常成功;我们将继续在这方面努力。

Cretaceous Vertebrates from Madagascar: A Window into the Biogeographic and Plate Tectonic History of GondwanaNational Science Foundation Proposal EAR-1123642PI David W. KrauseCo-PIs Patrick M. O?Connor, Raymond R. Rogers, Joseph J. W. Sertich, and Alan H. TurnerAbstract?The latter half of the Mesozoic Era witnessed profound changes in the configuration of landmasses that comprised the southern supercontinent of Gondwana, with dramatic consequences for the associated terrestrial and freshwater faunas of backboned (vertebrate) animals. Madagascar lay near the center of Gondwana as it fragmented into its component parts. This proposal seeks to continue a project primarily designed to discover vertebrate fossils from the Cretaceous Period. To date, we have quintupled the previously known species diversity of Late Cretaceous vertebrates from the island and have discovered some of the most complete and spectacularly preserved specimens of Late Cretaceous vertebrates from the southern hemisphere and, indeed, the world. Many new taxa have been named, described, and analyzed. But much remains to be done in the vast expanses of paleontologically and geologically unexplored Cretaceous rocks of Madagascar. With continued work, we are confident that Madagascar?s vertebrate fauna will become one of the best known faunas of Cretaceous age from the southern hemisphere and one of the primary standards against which other Gondwanan faunas of Cretaceous age are compared. We propose to continue collecting terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate fossils of latest Cretaceous age from two major field areas in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar. We also propose to expand our efforts into the Morondava Basin in western Madagascar, where a reconnaissance expedition in 2010 yielded a spectacular find of a massive sauropod dinosaur and the potential for many more specimens from strata older than those yielding fossils in the Mahajanga Basin. Discoveries from these earlier horizons will provide a deeper temporal context with which to address controversial biogeographic and plate tectonic hypotheses. As in the past, our work will strive to involve energetic and promising young people who are investigating a professional career in the sciences (high school and undergraduate students), studying to become professional paleontologists and geologists (graduate students), and just beginning their professional careers (postdoctoral associates and entry-level professors/curators). In addition to publishing in widely-distributed scientific journals, we will continue to make our research more broadly known to the public by publishing articles in popular magazines, contributing to displays in public museums, encouraging coverage in print media, radio, and television, developing websites, and through speaking engagements to both academic and lay audiences. Lastly, our establishment of the Madagascar Ankizy Fund (www.ankizy.org; ?ankizy? means ?children? in the Malagasy language), whose mission it is to build schools (four so far) and provide healthcare (e.g., temporary clinics, clean-water wells, mosquito nets) to remote areas of the island, has been very successful; our efforts in this venture will continue.