Vertebrates from the terrestrial Jurassic of New Zealand

来自新西兰陆地侏罗纪的脊椎动物

• 批准号: 319322180
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Oliver Rauhut, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Sektion Paläontologie und Geobiologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-31 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/319322180?language=en
• 关键词: Vertebrates; terrestrial; Jurassic; New; Zealand

The Jurassic was an important period for the evolution of vertebrates, as many of the principal groups experienced their first major radiation during this time. Unfortunately, our current understanding of these evolutionary events is mainly based on the fossil record of the northern hemisphere, while comparative data from the continents of former Gondwana are still rare. Furthermore, practically all known vertebrate fossils from the Jurassic of Gondwana come from western to central parts of the former supercontinent (South America and Africa), while almost no remains are known from the eastern and southern areas. However, such materials would be of greatest importance to put results gained from other occurrences into context and thus to clarify, for example, if patterns seen in western Gondwana reflect regional conditions or can be extended to all of Gondwana, regardless of the regional climatic and environmental conditions or latitudinal factors.The currently mainly flooded continent of Zealandia formed the south-eastern margin of the supercontinent of Gondwana in the Jurassic. Fossils from the Jurassic of the only larger emerged landmass of this continent, the islands of New Zealand, would thus provide essential new data on the Jurassic evolution of vertebrates. In the first phase of this project we investigated Middle and Late Jurassic mainly continental sediments of the North island in a short (two week) prospection campaign. Although this campaign did, unfortunately, not yield any vertebrate remains so far, at least one promising locality was found in the Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) Huriwei Group. Furthermore, several other continental Jurassic units are found in New Zealand on the South Island, which have never been prospected for vertebrate remains, including the Drumduan Group in the vicinity of Nelson, the Clent Hills Group west of Christchurch and several units in Southland, mainly in rocks of the Murihiku Terrane. The objectives of this renewal project are thus another prospection campaign of three weeks into the Jurassic of South Island to inspect the units listed above, and a two-week excavation campaign in the locality in the Huriwei Group, to better evaluate the potential of the Jurassic continental units of New Zealand.

侏罗纪是脊椎动物进化的一个重要时期，因为许多主要群体在这段时间经历了第一次大规模的辐射。不幸的是，我们目前对这些进化事件的理解主要基于北方的化石记录，而来自前冈瓦纳大陆的比较数据仍然很少。此外，几乎所有已知的冈瓦纳侏罗纪脊椎动物化石都来自前超大陆的西部到中部（南美洲和非洲），而东部和南部地区几乎没有已知的化石。然而，这些材料将是最重要的，把其他事件的结果纳入背景，从而澄清，例如，如果在冈瓦纳西部看到的模式反映了区域条件或可以扩展到整个冈瓦纳，无论区域气候和环境条件或纬度因素如何，目前主要被洪水淹没的西兰迪亚大陆形成了南-侏罗纪冈瓦纳超大陆东缘。因此，来自侏罗纪大陆上唯一出现的较大陆地--新西兰群岛的化石，将为侏罗纪脊椎动物的进化提供重要的新数据。在该项目的第一阶段，我们在一个简短的（两周）勘探活动中调查了中晚侏罗世主要是北岛的陆相沉积。虽然这一运动并没有，不幸的是，没有产生任何脊椎动物的遗骸，到目前为止，至少有一个有希望的地点被发现在上侏罗纪（提托阶）胡里维群。此外，在新西兰南岛发现了几个其他大陆侏罗纪单元，这些单元从未被勘探过脊椎动物遗骸，包括纳尔逊附近的Drumduan群，基督城以西的Clent Hills群和Southland的几个单元，主要在Murihiku地体的岩石中。因此，该更新项目的目标是对南岛侏罗纪进行为期三周的勘探活动，以检查上述单元，并在Huriwei群进行为期两周的挖掘活动，以更好地评估新西兰侏罗纪大陆单元的潜力。