Evolutionary and Paleoecological Change Across the Cretaceous Paleogene Boundary, Antarctica: Morphometric and Geochemical Evidence from Mollusk Faunas

学术价值：该项目的主要目标是研究形态学，分类学，生态结构和化石中的地球化学变化，这些变化跨越了古近纪大灭绝（约6500万年前）。 在南极洲詹姆斯罗斯岛盆地的露头中发现了许多保存完好的动物和植物化石，这些化石是测试进化假说和可能的环境联系的理想选择。 该项目将侧重于一个灭绝的化石群（菊石头足类动物），其特征是表现出快速的进化变化，以及两个被认为进化速度要慢得多的群体（双壳类和鹦鹉螺软体动物）。 这项研究将包括一种新的地球化学温度代用指标：聚集氧同位素测量。 这项研究将对最具破坏性的大规模灾难之前和之后的南半球高纬度地区的海洋环境产生新的见解。更广泛的影响：更广泛的影响将包括华盛顿大学（UW）的一名本科生和一名研究生直接参与研究，这是一个独特的机会。 该项目将允许早期职业PI，亨廷顿，成为参与南极研究。 亨廷顿将把南极研究纳入她在K-12教育中推广STEM的努力中。 她有一个职业生涯项目，其中包括少数民族教师服务高中在她的研究，并将主办一名教师作为该项目的一部分。 亨廷顿和沃德都将通过同行评审的出版物和他们的华盛顿大学教学来广泛传播研究结果。 沃德在通过科学书籍向公众宣传方面有着悠久的历史，他将把这些成果纳入他的新书中，这本书涉及古生物学和考古学。 沃德将把这些结果纳入伦敦自然历史博物馆的一个新展览。

Intellectual Merit:The main goal of the project is to study morphology, taxonomy, ecological structure, and geochemical variations in fossils across the Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction (~ 65 million years ago). Previously visited outcrops in the James Ross Island Basin in Antarctica contain numerous well-preserved animal and plant fossils which are ideal for testing evolutionary hypotheses and possible environmental links to extinctions. The project will focus on an extinct fossil group (ammonite cephalopods) that characteristically showed rapid evolutionary change, and two groups which are thought to evolve at much slower rates (bivalve and nautilid mollusks). The research will include a new geochemical proxy for temperature: clumped oxygen isotope measurements. The study will yield new insights into the marine environments at high southern latitudes both before and after one of the most devastating mass extinctions. Broader impacts:Broader impacts will include the direct engagement of one undergraduate and one graduate student at the University of Washington (UW) into the research, a unique opportunity. The project will allow an early career PI, Huntington, to become involved with Antarctic research. Huntington will incorporate the Antarctic Research into her efforts at promoting STEM in K-12 education. She has a CAREER project that includes teachers from minority serving high schools in her research, and will host one teacher as part of this project. Both Huntington and Ward will broadly disseminate the results through peer reviewed publications and their UW teaching. Ward has a long track record of outreach through science books for the public and will incorporate the results into his newest book, which involves paleontology and extinctions. Ward will incorporate the results into a new exhibit at the Natural History Museum of London.