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CAREER: Investigating Controls of Exceptional Fossil Preservation

职业：研究特殊化石保存的控制措施

基本信息

批准号：
1652351
负责人：
James Schiffbauer
金额：
$ 59.93万
依托单位：
University of Missouri-Columbia
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Continuing Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2017-06-01 至 2024-08-31
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1652351&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CAREER Investigating Controls Exceptional Fossil

项目摘要

Our picture of the history of life has gaps because shelly and boney materials are more likely to be preserved as fossils than soft tissues. This study will focus on some of the most spectacular examples of soft-tissue fossil preservation, known as Burgess Shale type, to understand how these rare fossils form. The Burgess Shale type fossils were preserved after one of the largest and earliest diversification events known in the history of life, the Cambrian Explosion (about 540 million years ago). This project will use micro-scale analyses of fossils, chemical signals preserved in sediments, and laboratory-based decay experiments to provide a better understanding of how Burgess Shale-type fossils form, and to understand the biology of some of our earliest animal ancestors. A key component of this work will be the development of an early animal life education plan designed to reach across the STEM pipeline. It will include components for elementary education, promotion of science to the general public, and contributions to geoscience education at the undergraduate level, the latter of which will continue to shape future generations of early STEM learners beyond the duration of this award. Each case of soft-tissue fossilization can be viewed as a race between destructive decay and constructive mineralization processes. By utilizing laboratory-based decay experimentation in concert with traditional field- and fossil-based approaches, this CAREER award research will provide necessary constraints on the timing and progression of decay-induced loss of biological information and fossilization-imperative mineralization within differing hypothesized (and observed) conditions for the Burgess Shale-type window. In addition to tried-and-true sedimentological, geochemical, and taphonomic approaches, this CAREER award research will utilize a custom-designed scanning electron microscope (supported by NSF EAR IF grant #1636643 to PI Schiffbauer) for significant improvements in fossil and decay-experiment-product microchemistry. Specifically, this instrument has been configured with dual, co-planar energy dispersive spectrometers and a microspot X-ray fluorescence system, coupled with several high-definition imaging detectors, to provide unparalleled fully quantitative and shadow-free microchemical analyses of a wide array of sample types. Fossil analyses and sedimentary geochemistry will focus on four North American, Paleozoic, Burgess Shale-type soft-tissue fossil deposits, which will better frame first-order fossilization processes and paleoenvironmental contexts that may have facilitated this taphonomic expression. This end goal of this study is to provide a refined understanding of how Burgess Shale-type preservation occurs, which in turn will deliver improved comprehension of biological fidelity of the fossil organisms preserved and contribute to a clearer picture of the earliest stages of animal evolution.

我们对生命历史的描述存在空白，因为贝壳和骨质物质比软组织更有可能作为化石保存下来。这项研究将集中在一些最壮观的软组织化石保存的例子，被称为伯吉斯页岩类型，以了解这些罕见的化石是如何形成的。伯吉斯页岩类化石是在生命史上已知的最大和最早的多样化事件之一--寒武纪大爆发（约5.4亿年前）之后保存下来的。该项目将使用化石的微观分析，沉积物中保存的化学信号和基于实验室的衰变实验，以更好地了解伯吉斯页岩类化石的形成方式，并了解我们最早的一些动物祖先的生物学。这项工作的一个关键组成部分将是制定一个旨在跨越STEM管道的早期动物生命教育计划。它将包括基础教育的组成部分，向公众推广科学，以及对本科阶段地球科学教育的贡献，后者将继续塑造未来几代早期STEM学习者。每一个软组织矿化的病例都可以被看作是破坏性的腐烂和建设性的矿化过程之间的竞赛。通过利用基于实验室的衰变实验与传统的现场和化石为基础的方法相结合，这项职业奖研究将提供必要的限制的时间和进展的衰变引起的生物信息和生物矿化的损失在不同的假设（和观察）条件下伯吉斯页岩型窗口。除了久经考验的沉积学，地球化学和埋藏学方法外，这项CAREER奖研究还将利用定制设计的扫描电子显微镜（由美国国家科学基金会资助#1636643 PI Schiffbauer支持），以显着改善化石和衰变实验产物微化学。具体而言，该仪器配置了双共面能量色散光谱仪和微点X射线荧光系统，再加上几个高清晰度成像探测器，为各种样品类型提供无与伦比的完全定量和无阴影微量化学分析。化石分析和沉积地球化学将集中在四个北美，古生代，伯吉斯页岩型软组织化石矿床，这将更好地框架一级石化过程和古环境背景，可能促进了这种埋藏的表达。这项研究的最终目标是提供一个更好的理解如何伯吉斯页岩类型的保存发生，这反过来又将提供更好的理解保存的化石生物的生物保真度，并有助于更清晰地了解动物进化的最早阶段。