DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Revealing the Floristic and Biogeographic Composition of Paleocene to Miocene Neotropical Forests

论文研究：揭示古新世至中新世新热带森林的植物区系和生物地理组成

• 批准号: 1210404
• 负责人: Steven Manchester
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: University of Florida
• 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: 2012-08-01 至 2014-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1210404&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Revealing; Floristic; Biogeographic

What kinds of plants inhabited South America right after the extinction of the dinosaurs? What plants colonized the emergent islands in Central America ~40 million years ago? How did the rise of the Andes affect South American forests? These are some of the questions that have continued unanswered for many decades. Investigating well-preserved fossil fruits from Colombia, Perú, and Panama, through successive stages between ~60 and ~19 million years ago, will reveal the evolution of those ancient forests and their responses to past climatic and geographic changes. The newly recovered fossils and detailed comparative analyses with extant plants will provide new insights into the evolution of ancient forests in Latin America.This project will promote international collaboration and recruitment of other undergraduate and graduate students, developing of cyber-exhibits on the importance of fossil plants, and publishing of results in scientific and non-scientific journals. South and Central American rainforests have the highest plant diversity of any region in the world today. This phenomenal diversity cannot be fully understood without the deep-time perspective that the fossil record offers. Researchers working on the region (genetic, ecological, paleoclimatic and geological studies) will benefit from the regional and broad age spectrum of this paleobotanical study.

恐龙灭绝后，什么样的植物栖息在南美洲？什么植物在4000万年前殖民了中美洲的新兴岛屿？安第斯山脉的崛起是如何影响南美森林的？这些是几十年来一直没有答案的一些问题。通过对来自哥伦比亚、秘鲁和巴拿马的保存完好的水果化石的研究，通过6000万至1900万年前的连续阶段，将揭示这些古老森林的演变及其对过去气候和地理变化的反应。新发现的化石和与现存植物的详细比较分析将为拉丁美洲古代森林的演变提供新的见解，这一项目将促进国际合作，招收其他本科生和研究生，开发关于化石植物重要性的网上展览，并在科学和非科学期刊上发表成果。南美洲和中美洲的热带雨林是当今世界上植物多样性最高的地区。如果没有化石记录提供的深层时间视角，就无法完全理解这种惊人的多样性。在该地区工作的研究人员（遗传，生态，古气候和地质研究）将受益于这一古植物学研究的区域和广泛的年龄范围。