Island Biogeography in Deep Time: The Assembly and Demise of a Uniquely Insular Eocene Mammal Fauna

本项目研究在前安纳托利亚岛（现代土耳其及邻近地区）新发现的始新世（4400万年）脊椎动物化石存款。将研究化石哺乳动物，以调查影响该地区各地质年代岛屿组合组成的因素。该项目支持来自美国，土耳其（北约的长期成员和中东的关键战略伙伴）和法国的教师和学生的深入合作和独特的培训机会。教育推广活动将包括两个新的博物馆展览和在维基百科（英语和土耳其语）上发布的关于土耳其始新世化石的热门条目。岛屿环境中脊椎动物的化石记录严重偏向第四纪，严重限制了我们在深部时间研究岛屿动物群动态的能力。使用贝叶斯和最大简约法，始新世哺乳动物的Anatolia的系统发育关系将被重建。这些哺乳动物的系统发育，地理和生物地层学的关系，将有助于评估的意义，分散，vicariance，并在原地多样化的驱动程序的生物组装，以及这些过程是否符合现行模式的岛屿地理。地球化学代用品将被用来重建始新世期间的亚安纳托利亚不断演变的环境，这是必要的，以衡量是否在物理或生物环境的变化煽动其岛屿哺乳动物群的消亡。现代岛屿拥有地球上不成比例的生物多样性，但这些岛屿生物群落容易受到入侵类群和其他人为因素的影响。该项目将阐明在没有人为影响的世界中生物周转的驱动因素。该奖项反映了NSF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 studies a newly discovered Eocene (44 million-years-old) vertebrate fossil deposit from the former island of Balkanatolia (modern Turkey and adjacent areas). Fossil mammals will be studied to investigate the factors that influence the composition of island assemblages across geological timescales in the region. The project supports deep collaboration and unique training opportunities for faculty and students from the USA, Turkey (a longstanding member of NATO and a key strategic partner in the Middle East) and France. Educational outreach activities will include two new museum exhibits and popular entries on Turkish Eocene fossils posted on Wikipedia (in both English and Turkish). The fossil record of vertebrates from island contexts is heavily biased toward the Quaternary, severely limiting our ability to investigate insular faunal dynamics during deep time. Using both Bayesian and maximum parsimony methods, the phylogenetic relationships of the Eocene mammals of Balkanatolia will be reconstructed. Phylogenetic, biogeographic and biostratigraphic relationships of these mammals will facilitate an evaluation of the significance of dispersal, vicariance, and in situ diversification as drivers of biotic assembly and whether these processes conform with prevailing models of island biogeography. Geochemical proxies will be employed to reconstruct the evolving environment of Balkanatolia during the Eocene, which is necessary to gauge whether changes in the physical or biotic environment instigated the demise of its insular mammal fauna. Modern islands host a disproportionate fraction of the planet’s biodiversity, yet these insular biotas are vulnerable to invasive taxa and other anthropogenic agents. This project will illuminate the drivers of biotic turnover in a world free of anthropogenic influences.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.