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

智力优势：该项目的主要目标是研究白垩纪-古近纪大灭绝时期（~ 6500万年前）化石的形态、分类、生态结构和地球化学变化。之前参观过的南极洲詹姆斯罗斯岛盆地的露头包含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设和可能与灭绝有关的环境的理想选择。该项目将重点研究一个已灭绝的化石类群（鹦鹉螺类头足类），它的特点是进化变化迅速，以及两个被认为进化速度要慢得多的类群（双壳类和鹦鹉螺类软体动物）。这项研究将包括一种新的温度地球化学代用物：团块氧同位素测量。这项研究将对南纬高纬度地区的海洋环境产生新的见解，无论是在最具破坏性的一次大灭绝之前还是之后。更广泛的影响：更广泛的影响将包括华盛顿大学（UW）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CAREER项目，在她的研究中包括来自少数民族高中的教师，并将接待一位教师作为这个项目的一部分。亨廷顿和沃德都将通过同行评审的出版物和他们在华盛顿大学的教学广泛传播研究结果。沃德长期以来一直致力于通过科学书籍向公众宣传，他将把这些成果纳入他的新书中，这本书涉及古生物学和物种灭绝。沃德将把研究结果纳入伦敦自然历史博物馆的一个新展览中。

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.