Collaborative Research: Understanding the Evolution of High-latitude Permo-Triassic Paleoenvironments and their Vertebrate Communities.

合作研究：了解高纬度二叠纪-三叠纪古环境及其脊椎动物群落的演化。

• 批准号: 1341304
• 负责人: Christian Sidor
• 金额: $ 32.04万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1341304&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Understanding; Evolution; latitude

Around 252 million years ago, a major mass extinction wiped out upwards of 90% of species on Earth. Coincident with this extinction, the Antarctic portion of the supercontinent of Pangea transitioned to a warmer climatic regime and became devoid of glaciers. Little is known about the survivors of the extinction in Antarctica, although it has been hypothesized that the continent's high latitude location shielded it from the worst of the extinction's effects. The Shackleton Glacier region is the best place to study this extinction in Antarctica because it exposes an abundance of correct age rocks and relevant fossils were found there in the 1960s and 1980s. For this research, paleontologists will study fossil vertebrates that span from about 260 to 240 million years ago to understand how life evolved at high latitudes in the face of massive climate change. In addition, geologists will use fossil soils and fossil plant matter to more precisely reconstruct the climate of Antarctica across this extinction boundary. These data will allow for a more complete understanding of ancient climates and how Antarctic life compared to that at lower latitudes. Undergraduate and graduate students will be actively involved in this research. Public engagement in Antarctic science will be accomplished at several natural history museums.This three-year project will examine the evolution of Permo-Triassic paleoenvironments and their vertebrate communities by conducting fieldwork in the Shackleton Glacier region of Antarctica. The team will characterize the Permo-Triassic boundary within Shackleton area strata and correlate it to other stratigraphic successions in the region (e.g. via stable carbon isotope stratigraphy of fossilized plant organic matter). The researchers will use multiple types of data to assess the paleoenvironment, including: 1) paleosol morphology; 2) paleosol geochemistry; 3) pedogenic organic matter; and 4) fossil wood chronology and stable isotopes. The Fremouw Formation of Antarctica preserves the highest paleolatitude (~70° S) tetrapod fauna of the entire Triassic and thus has the potential to shed important light on the evolution of polar life during the early Mesozoic. The biology of Triassic vertebrates from Antarctica will be compared to conspecifics from lower paleolatitudes through analysis of growth in bone and tusk histology. An interdisciplinary approach will be used to address relationships between environmental change, faunal composition, and biogeographic patterns in the context of the high-latitude strata preserved in the Buckley and Fremouw formations in the Shackleton Glacier region.

大约2.52亿年前，大质量延伸消失了地球上90％以上的物种。与这一延伸相吻合，Pangea超大陆的南极部分过渡到温暖的气候状态，并没有冰川。尽管已经假设该大陆的高纬度位置使其与延伸效应的最坏情况相屏蔽，但对南极洲的延伸的生存知之甚少。沙克尔顿冰川地区是研究南极洲这一扩展的最佳场所，因为它在1960年代和1980年代在那里发现了正确的年龄岩石和相关化石的抽象。对于这项研究，古生物学家将研究大约260到2.4亿年前的化石脊椎动物，以了解面对大规模气候变化的高纬度生命如何在高纬度地区进化。此外，地质学家将使用化石土壤和化石植物物质更精确地重建南极洲的气候。这些数据将使与较低纬度的古代气候以及南极生活相比，对古代气候以及南极的生活有更全面的了解。本科生和研究生将积极参与这项研究。在几个自然历史博物馆将完成参与南极科学的公众参与。这三年的项目将研究腐蚀性三叠纪的古环境及其脊椎动物社区的演变，通过在南极的Shackleton Glacier地区进行实地调查。该小组将表征沙克尔顿地区层中的渗透三叠纪边界，并将其与该地区的其他地层统计相关联（例如，通过稳定的化石植物有机物的稳定碳同位素地层学）。研究人员将使用多种类型的数据来评估古环境，包括：1）古化形态； 2）古化学； 3）儿子有机物； 4）化石木的年表和稳定的同位素。南极洲的fremouw形成保留了整个三叠纪的最高古显着（〜70°S）四足动物动物动物区系，因此有可能在中生代早期对极性生命的进化阐明重要的灯光。通过分析骨骼和象牙组织学的生长，将来自南极的三叠纪脊椎动物的生物学与较低古介质的考虑。将使用跨学科方法来解决环境变化，动物组成和生物地理模式之间在保存在Shackleton冰川地区Buckley和Fremouw地层中的高纬度层的生物地理模式之间的关系。