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

该项目研究了一个新发现的始新世（4400万年前）脊椎动物化石矿床，该化石来自前巴尔卡纳托利亚岛（现代土耳其及其邻近地区）。将研究哺乳动物化石，以调查影响该地区跨地质时间尺度的岛屿组合组成的因素。该项目为来自美国、土耳其（北约的长期成员和中东的重要战略伙伴）和法国的教师和学生提供深度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上发布的关于土耳其始新世化石的热门条目（英语和土耳其语）。来自岛屿背景的脊椎动物化石记录严重偏向于第四纪，严重限制了我们在深时间研究岛屿动物动态的能力。利用贝叶斯和最大简约方法，重建了巴尔干半岛始新世哺乳动物的系统发育关系。这些哺乳动物的系统发育、生物地理和生物地层学关系将有助于评估作为生物聚集驱动因素的分散、变异和就地多样化的重要性，以及这些过程是否符合岛屿生物地理学的主流模式。地球化学指标将用于重建巴尔卡纳托利亚在始新世的演化环境，这对于判断物理或生物环境的变化是否导致其岛屿哺乳动物群的灭绝是必要的。现代岛屿承载着地球上不成比例的生物多样性，然而这些岛屿生物很容易受到入侵分类群和其他人为因素的影响。这个项目将阐明在一个没有人为影响的世界中生物更替的驱动因素。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 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.