Ecology and Diversity Dynamics of Late Cretaceous Dinosaurs

陆地脊椎动物多样性的模式导致了标志着恐龙时代结束的大灭绝事件，这一事件继续引起激烈的争论，北美的化石记录样本丰富，形成了关于地球历史上这一重大生物多样性危机的最终原因的不同假设的基础。在这场生物危机中，生物和非生物因素如何相互作用，塑造了灭绝选择性的模式，幸存者随着生态系统的重建而辐射，塑造了现代世界。该项目的目标是解决白垩纪晚期（8400 - 6600万年前）恐龙（包括鸟类）的古生物多样性和古生态模式，并评估它们与北美气候和环境变化的关系。在未来五年，该计划旨在：1）解决中生代最后2000万年北美西部恐龙的物种丰富度和多样性动态，2）量化关键恐龙组合的形态差异和功能多样性，以重建晚白垩世古生态动态并为食物网模型提供信息，3）重建大规模的历史地理模式，以检验恐龙的地方性和气候和海平面对其地理的控制的假设，（4）将新的恐龙多样性和生态学数据与其他陆地生物的数据相结合，并采用生态模拟方法来理解古生态动态和灭绝。虽然恐龙经常被描绘成这种大规模灭绝的标志性受害者，但了解灭绝选择性和鸟类的生存使它们成为陆生脊椎动物宏观进化和生态动力学研究的重要模式分支。该提案中的研究将提供基本的新数据和必要的框架，以了解大规模气候和环境变化对导致白垩纪末灭绝事件的恐龙进化模式，地理学和多样性的作用。 关于恐龙多样性、群落结构和生态学的新结果将为食物网相互作用的新模型提供信息（例如，CEG模型），将用于评估导致重大扰动的生态稳定性和复原力模式（例如，火流星撞击，火山活动）在白垩纪末，并导致更好地了解恐龙灭绝模式。 更清楚地了解恐龙的进化和生态动态，因为它们与这次灭绝事件之前和之后的气候变化有关，这将为大规模灭绝的原因和后果提供新的线索，这对我们今天面临的生物多样性危机是及时和相关的。********

The pattern of terrestrial vertebrate diversity leading to the mass extinction event that marks the end of the Age of Dinosaurs continues to be hotly debated, with the well-sampled fossil record of North America forming the basis for differing hypotheses on the ultimate causes of this major biodiversity crisis in Earth History. How biotic and abiotic factors interacted during this biotic crisis shaped patterns of extinction selectivity, with survivors radiating as ecosystems restructured to shape the modern world. The goal of this program is to resolve palaeobiodiversity and palaeoecological patterns in latest Cretaceous (84-66 million years ago) dinosaurs (including birds), and evaluate their relationship to climatic and environmental changes in North America. Over the next five years, this program aims to: 1) resolve the species richness and diversity dynamics of dinosaurs from western North America in the last 20 million years of the Mesozoic, 2) quantify morphological disparity and functional diversity of key dinosaur assemblages to reconstruct Late Cretaceous palaeoecological dynamics and inform food web models, 3) reconstruct large-scale historical biogeographic patterns to test hypotheses of dinosaur provinciality and climatic and sea-level controls on their biogeography, and 4) integrate new dinosaur diversity and ecology data with that of other terrestrial organisms and employ ecological modelling approaches to understand palaeoecological dynamics and extinction. Although dinosaurs are often portrayed as iconic victims of this mass extinction, understanding extinction selectivity and the survival of birds makes them an important model clade for studies of macroevolutionary and ecological dynamics in terrestrial vertebrates. Research in this proposal will provide fundamental new data and the requisite frameworks for understanding the role of large-scale climatic and environmental changes on patterns of dinosaur evolution, biogeography, and diversity leading up to the end-Cretaceous extinction event. New results on dinosaur diversity, community structure and ecology will inform novel models of food web interactions (e.g., CEG modelling) that will be used to evaluate patterns of ecological stability and resilience leading up to the major perturbations (e.g., bolide impact, volcanism) at the end of the Cretaceous, and lead to a better understanding of dinosaur extinction patterns. A clearer understanding of the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of dinosaurs as they relate to climate change preceding and through this extinction event will shed new light on the causes and consequences of mass extinctions in general, which is timely and relevant to the biodiversity crisis we are facing today. ********