CAREER: Reconstructing ancient ocean ecosystems: ecological consequences of ammonoid shell shape.

这个项目运用新技术来发现一群重要的古代动物是如何在水中移动的。在恐龙时代，被称为鹦鹉螺的鱿鱼状动物充斥着海洋，它们受到浮力贝壳的帮助或阻碍。项目结果将显示哪些壳体形状属性增加了水下推进的速度、机动性和稳定性。这一新知识将改变古代海洋生态系统的重建，并使人们更好地了解生命对全球大灭绝的反应。犹他大学（University of Utah）和盐湖城社区学院（Salt Lake Community College）的早期职业研究人员和学生研究人员将获得在不断增长的经济部门的广泛职业领域的重要技能，包括为公众开发增强现实体验。除了古科学之外，研究结果还将为设计从豌豆到拖拉机轮胎大小的自主和推进仪器提供关于形状、大小和速度的关键数据。该项目将通过测量作用于模型壳的流体动力学和流体静力学物理来衡量氨壳形状的生态后果。模型将处理代表世界范围内菊石种群的广义外壳形状，以及在全球大灭绝后激增的化石物种的目标群体。贝壳模型依赖于算法来实现理想的贝壳形状，以及扫描技术来复制和改变真实的化石标本。每个壳体将进入计算机模拟，以测量流体动力学-阻力，升力，浊度等-并将3D打印用于测量流体静力学-浮力，稳定性，气体交换等的水箱实验。综合起来，这些结果将提供迄今为止最全面的关于氨类生物在3亿年的海洋统治期间可能形成的生态动态的能力、局限性和优势的图景。它们的生态系统的重建，无论是从总体上还是从特定的灭绝后恢复阶段，都将提供一个前所未有的关于生命对环境变化的反应的视角，并为评估今天灭绝导致的它们现存近亲的增加提供一个关键的基线。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project applies new technologies to discover how a critical group of ancient animals moved through water. During the age of dinosaurs, squid-like animals called ammonites filled the seas, aided – or hindered – by buoyant shells. Project results will show which shell shape attributes increased the speed, maneuverability, and stability of underwater propulsion. This new knowledge will transform reconstructions of ancient ocean ecosystems, and lead to greater understanding of life’s responses to global mass extinctions. Early-career and student researchers at the University of Utah and Salt Lake Community College will gain vital skills for wide-ranging career fields in growing economic sectors, including through development of augmented-reality experiences for the public. Beyond paleo-sciences, results will provide critical data on shape, size, and speed for the design of autonomous and propelled instruments ranging in size from a pea to a tractor tire.This project will weigh the ecological consequences of ammonoid shell shape by measuring hydrodynamic and hydrostatic physics that act on model shells. Models will treat both generalized shell shapes representative of worldwide ammonoid populations through time, and a targeted group of fossil species that proliferated after global mass extinctions. Shell models rely on algorithms for idealized shell shapes, and scanning techniques to replicate and alter real fossil specimens. Each shell will enter computer simulations to measure hydrodynamics – drag, lift, turbidity, etc. – and will be 3D printed for water tank experiments that measure hydrostatics – buoyancy, stability, gas exchange, etc. Taken together, the results will offer the most comprehensive picture to date of the capabilities, limitations, and advantages that likely shaped ammonoid ecological dynamics during their 300-million-year reign at sea. Reconstructions of their ecosystems, both in general and from specific post-extinction recovery phases, will provide an unprecedented look at life’s response to environmental change, and a critical baseline for evaluation of today’s extinction-fueled rise of their living relatives.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.