Collaborative Research: An Exceptional Window into Late Triassic Terrestrial Ecosystems from the Western United States

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Collaborative Research: An Exceptional Window into Late Triassic Terrestrial Ecosystems from the Western United StatesByRandall Irmis, EAR-1349560, University of UtahSterling Nesbitt, EAR-1349554, Howard UniversityNathan Smith, EAR-1349654, Virginia TechAlan Turner, EAR-1349667, SUNY StonybrookABSTRACT Intellectual Merit: The Late Triassic (~235-201 million years ago) records one of the most dynamic intervals of Earth history. A critical time of paleoenvironmental and biotic turnover, this interval witnessed the origin of modern terrestrial ecosystems. The Hayden Quarry (HQ) represents a unique opportunity to establish an extensive multi-million-year biotic-paleoenvironmental archive from nonmarine strata. HQ and associated localities in the Upper Triassic Chinle Formation of northern New Mexico provide an unparalleled window into the evolution of terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems, including the rise of dinosaurs. The extremely well-preserved fossils of HQ include at least 12 major groups of Late Triassic vertebrates sampled from over 15,000 collected specimens. This project has two major goals: 1) to establish an integrated record of paleoenvironmental and faunal change in Upper Triassic strata of northern New Mexico; and 2) utilize the extraordinary HQ vertebrate assemblage to elucidate the evolutionary history of early Mesozoic archosauromorph reptiles. This project represents one of the first integrated studies of biotic response to paleoenvironmental changes in a terrestrial ecosystem during the rise of dinosaurs. Broader Impacts: PIs discoveries are assimilated into the education curriculum and new exhibits at the Ghost Ranch Museum of Paleontology, exposing over 2,000 K-12 students from Rio Arriba County to science (where 70% of residents belong to population groups traditionally underrepresented in science), including through class site visits to the Hayden Quarry itself. To date, forty-five graduate and undergraduate students from nine different institutions have participated in and received training through our Ghost Ranch field project. This project provides funding for a minimum of four graduate students and six undergraduates in fieldwork and research, including support for underrepresented groups in the geosciences (e.g., African-Americans and women). Research will be disseminated through both scholarly and popular publications, as well as media press releases (e.g., http://www.nsf.gov/tawa). Finally, data generated by the project will be contributed to NSF-supported publically accessible databases such as MorphoBank (http://www.morphobank.org) and the Paleobiology Database (http://paleodb.org/).