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

来自马达加斯加的白垩纪脊椎动物：冈瓦纳生物地理和板块构造史的一个窗口康纳、雷蒙德·r·罗杰斯、约瑟夫·j·w·瑟蒂奇和艾伦·h·特纳摘要？中生代后半期见证了构成冈瓦纳南部超大陆的陆块结构的深刻变化，对相关的陆地和淡水脊椎动物动物群产生了戏剧性的影响。马达加斯加位于冈瓦纳火山的中心附近，当时它分裂成几个组成部分。该提案旨在继续一项主要旨在发现白垩纪时期脊椎动物化石的项目。到目前为止，我们已经从岛上发现了五倍于以前已知的白垩纪晚期脊椎动物物种多样性，并从南半球，甚至是世界上发现了一些保存最完整、最壮观的白垩纪晚期脊椎动物标本。许多新的分类群已经被命名、描述和分析。但在马达加斯加的白垩纪岩石中，从古生物学和地质学的角度来看，还有很多工作要做。随着工作的继续开展，我们有信心马达加斯加？这里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。我们建议在马达加斯加西北部Mahajanga盆地的两个主要野外地区继续收集白垩纪晚期陆生和淡水脊椎动物化石。我们还建议将我们的工作扩展到马达加斯加西部的莫伦达瓦盆地，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，并且可能从比马哈扬加盆地更古老的地层中找到更多的标本。这些早期视野的发现将为解决有争议的生物地理学和板块构造假说提供更深层次的时间背景。与过去一样，我们的工作将努力吸引精力充沛、有前途的年轻人，他们正在研究科学领域的职业生涯（高中生和本科生），正在学习成为专业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）。除了在广泛发行的科学期刊上发表文章外，我们还将继续通过在流行杂志上发表文章，在公共博物馆展出，鼓励印刷媒体，广播和电视报道，开发网站，以及向学术和非专业观众发表演讲，使我们的研究更广泛地为公众所知。最后，我们成立了马达加斯加Ankizy基金（www.ankizy.org; ? Ankizy ?）意思吗?孩子?（马达加斯加语），其任务是为该岛偏远地区建造学校（迄今已有四所）和提供医疗保健（例如，临时诊所、清洁水井、蚊帐），非常成功；我们在这次冒险中的努力将继续下去。

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.