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

该项目应用新技术来发现一组重要的古代动物如何在水中移动。在恐龙时代，被称为菊石的鱿鱼状动物充斥着海洋，浮力壳的帮助或阻碍。项目结果将显示哪些壳体形状属性增加了水下推进器的速度、机动性和稳定性。这些新知识将改变古代海洋生态系统的重建，并导致更好地了解生命对全球大规模灭绝的反应。犹他州大学和盐湖社区学院的早期职业和学生研究人员将在不断增长的经济部门获得广泛的职业领域的重要技能，包括通过为公众开发增强现实体验。在古科学之外，研究结果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有关形状、大小和速度的关键数据。该项目将通过测量作用于模型壳体的流体动力学和流体静力学物理学来衡量菊石壳体形状的生态后果。模型将处理代表全球菊石种群的广义壳形状，以及在全球大规模灭绝后增殖的一组目标化石物种。贝壳模型依赖于理想化贝壳形状的算法，以及复制和改变真实的化石标本的扫描技术。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的水箱实验-浮力，稳定性，气体交换等。和优势，可能塑造菊石生态动态在其3亿年的统治在海上。重建他们的生态系统，无论是在一般和特定的灭绝后恢复阶段，将提供一个前所未有的看生命对环境变化的反应，和一个关键的基线，为评估今天的保护燃料的崛起，他们的生活亲属。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得的支持，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

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.