Exploration of relict faunas on the deep slopes of the Queensland Plateau

20世纪70年代，在西南太平洋的诺福克山脊发现了一种特殊的无根无脊椎动物。这个动物群是引人注目的，因为它包含了以前被认为已经灭绝的动物种群，但自中生代晚期（距今65万年）以来，这些动物在深礁斜坡上几乎没有改变。我们自己在20世纪90年代中期对澳大利亚珊瑚海的考察发现了鱼鹰礁和鲨鱼礁周围的深水动物群的组成部分，但当时不可能进行详细的探索。在这个项目中，我们现在的目标是部署科学潜水器，在昆士兰高原（澳大利亚珊瑚海）鱼鹰礁和鲨鱼礁周围1000米深处，详细调查中生代遗留动物和泥丘结构的生物多样性。这些残存的动物（“活化石”）对生物多样性和地球生物科学具有极大的兴趣，因为它们为研究过去的环境提供了一扇窗口。我们将利用深海探险队“深海澳大利亚”发现之旅（www.deepoceanexpeditions.com）提供的独特机会，利用新改装的RV“深海探索号”和它的两个深水探测车潜水器，能够在2006年初潜入珊瑚海所需的深度。该项目将为完全被忽视的独特海洋生物多样性和新的遗传资源提供大量新知识，以促进对这些“活化石”及其环境的生态学、（分子）多样性、系统地理学、系统发育和进化趋势的进一步了解。

An exceptional sessile invertebrate fauna was discovered in the 1970s on the Norfolk Ridge in the SW Pacific. This fauna is remarkable because it contains populations of animals that were previously thought to be extinct but have persisted almost unchanged on the deep reef slopes since the late Mesozoic (>65 MYA). Our own expeditions to the Coral Sea in Australia in the mid-1990s discovered components of this deep-water fauna around Osprey- and Shark Reefs, but detailed exploration was not possible at that time. In this project we now aim to deploy scientific submersibles to investigate in detail the biodiversity of Mesozoic relict faunas and mud mound-structures down to a depth of 1000 m around Osprey- and Shark Reefs on the Queensland Plateau (Coral Sea, Australia). These remnant relict faunas (`living fossils¿) are of great interest to the biodiversity and geobiological sciences as they provide a window into past environments. We will capitalize on the unique opportunity provided by the arrival of Deep Ocean Expedition¿s ¿Deep Australia¿ voyage of discovery (www.deepoceanexpeditions.com) with the newly refitted RV ¿Deep Ocean Quest¿ and its two deep rover submersibles, capable of diving to the required depth, in the Coral Sea in early 2006. This project will provide substantial new knowledge on a completely overlooked and unique marine biodiversity and new genetic resources to promote a further understanding of ecology, (molecular) diversity, phylogeography, phylogeny, and trends in evolution of these `living fossils¿ and their environments.