Collaborative Research: Assembling the foundation of modern mammal community structure in the first 7 million years after the K/Pg mass extinction

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Mammals are ecologically dominant in ecosystems today. Their rise to prominence after the mass extinction (K/Pg) that killed off the dinosaurs 66 million years ago is a classic example of evolutionary radiation. Study of such events not only impacts evolutionary theory but also our understanding of loss and origination of biodiversity and the fragility, collapse, assembly, and maintenance of today’s ecosystems. Detailed understanding of the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of this event are lacking. A diverse team of geologists and paleontologists will build a study system in eastern Montana that spans the first 7 million years after the K/Pg mass extinction to address two central questions: 1) How did mammals rise to ecological prominence in local ecosystems in deep time?, and 2) How did factors, like climate and vegetation, shape this trajectory? The team will generate and integrate critical records of fossil mammals and climate proxies in a highly resolved temporal framework across eastern Montana. This will provide a detailed Earth system view of the continental ecosystem across the K/Pg and through most of the Paleocene (the first ~7 million years) that will elucidate long-term connections between mammalian evolution, ecology, and climate. Analyses will also clarify how perturbations to these systems lead to large-scale ecosystem change and moderate biotic recovery and radiation. This work will have implications for geochronology, paleoclimatology, paleontology, ecology, and evolution. The team will engage a wider and more diverse audience through (1) the multi-year outreach initiative the Discoveries in Geosciences (DIG) Field School, which connects K-12 teachers and their classrooms with real Earth science research via fieldwork and classroom activities; (2) broadening the participation of underrepresented groups in research by supporting a PI and a graduate student who are early-career female scientists and a PI from an underrepresented group, in addition to providing full scholarships for 8 teachers from underrepresented groups to attend DIG; and (3) building STEM talent through the education and training of 4 graduate students and at least 6 undergraduate students who will be introduced to the Earth sciences through field and lab work.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.