Saving a Lost Ecosystem: Restoring and exploring the exceptionally preserved fossils of the Cleveland Shale (Late Devonian)

克利夫兰自然历史博物馆目前正在进行一项大规模的改造工程，其中包括建造新的永久性展品和储存设施。博物馆的古生物学藏品中有来自地球历史上一个独特时期的化石，当时俄亥俄州的克利夫兰是一片热带海洋，支撑着一种不熟悉的生态系统。在泥盆纪末期（约3.58亿年前），随着环境的急剧变化，这里发现的许多独特的动植物都灭绝了。克利夫兰的化石记录让我们得以一窥剧烈的环境变化对过去的影响——这些信息对未来有着深远的影响。该博物馆拥有世界上最大的克利夫兰地区泥盆纪化石收藏；然而，由于储存条件不足，它们目前处于危险之中。博物馆的科学家们认识到，现在是时候拯救这些珍贵的地球历史记录了。他们的目标是为这些藏品建立一个稳定的环境，在它们进一步退化之前记录下它们所包含的所有证据，并扩大获取途径，使更多的科学家能够使用这一非凡的资源。此外，对化石进行摄影和3d扫描将使全球观众能够以新的和令人兴奋的方式与它们互动。泥盆纪结束于数百万年的剧变，其标志是剧烈的环境变化，多次灭绝事件，以及大多数海洋生物的消失。这些灭绝对海洋生物和脊椎动物的进化产生了巨大的影响。许多现代脊椎动物的特征——包括颌、牙齿和骨盆鳍——首先出现在泥盆纪的鱼身上，这些鱼是在被称为克利夫兰页岩段的地质构造中发现的。在克利夫兰当地的这些沉积物中发现的许多物种在世界其他地方都没有发现。这些化石保存得非常完好，保留了软组织等特征，而且很少发现形态学信息。然而，黄铁矿病目前正威胁着博物馆泥盆纪化石收藏的保存。克利夫兰页岩中天然存在的活性黄铁矿在潮湿条件下会氧化，产生硫化铁，从而破坏岩石的形态特征和整个标本。因此，博物馆的目标是将这些藏品转移到一个有新橱柜的气候控制空间，首次向全球聚合器发布脊椎动物古生物数据集，制作和发布标本的3D表面扫描以保留形态学信息，并利用这些记录进行教育宣传，告诉公众地球已经发生了多大的变化，并将继续发生变化。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。

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is currently undergoing a large-scale transformation project, which includes the building of new permanent exhibits and storage facilities. The Museum’s paleontology collections house fossils from a unique time in Earth’s history, when what is now Cleveland, Ohio, was a tropical ocean that supported an unfamiliar ecosystem. Many of the distinctive plants and animals found here went extinct when the environment changed dramatically at the end of the Devonian Period (~358 million years ago). The fossil record in Cleveland provides a remarkable glimpse into the past impacts of drastic environmental change—information with far-reaching implications for the future. The Museum has the world’s largest collection of Cleveland-area Devonian fossils; however, they are currently at risk due to inadequate storage conditions. The Museum’s scientists recognize that now is the time to save this valuable record of Earth’s past. Their goal is to build a stable environment for this collection, document all the evidence it contains before it degrades further, and expand access to enable more scientists to use this extraordinary resource. Additionally, photographing and 3D-scanning the fossils will allow global audiences to interact with them in new and exciting ways.The Devonian Period ended in millions of years of upheaval marked by drastic environmental change, multiple extinction events, and the loss of the majority of marine life. These extinctions had dramatic impacts on life in the oceans and on vertebrate evolution. Numerous traits of modern vertebrates—including jaws, teeth, and pelvic fins—first appeared in the Devonian fish found in the geologic formation known as the Cleveland Shale Member. Many of the species uncovered in these local Cleveland deposits are not found anywhere else in the world. The fossils are exceptionally preserved, retaining features like soft tissues and rarely found morphological information. However, pyrite disease is currently threatening the preservation of the Museum’s Devonian fossil collection. Reactive pyrite that occurs naturally in the Cleveland Shale can oxidize in humid conditions, creating iron sulfide, which can destroy morphological features and entire specimens. Therefore, the Museum’s goal is to move the collection into a climate-controlled space with new cabinets, publish the vertebrate paleontology dataset to global aggregators for the first time, make and publish 3D surface scans of specimens to retain information about morphology, and use these records in educational outreach to teach the public about how much the Earth has changed and will continue to change.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.