U.S.-Senegal Cooperative Research: Early Cambrian Small Shelly Fossils Stratigraphy & Paleoenvironments in the Southwest Taoudeni Basin, West Africa

本提案请求资金支持Old Dominion大学地质科学系Stephen J. Culver博士和塞内加尔达喀尔大学地质系Ramzy Khatib博士在为期24个月的时间内加强他们之间的合作。西非Taoudeni盆地西南部早寒武世小壳类化石、地层学和古环境研究。广泛采集样本的古生物学目标实现了，但该项目的另一个目标——确定古环境——只部分实现了。本项目将为合作者的额外实地工作和哈提卜博士前往Old Dominion大学(1)对样品进行x射线衍射和射线照相分析以及(2)就结果和解释进行合作提供支助。​该项目将增加我们对西非古生代盆地和褶皱带地层学的认识。它将完善我们对最早寒武纪方案分布的理解。该项目还将导致对这些生物作为化石生存、死亡和积累的环境的解释。该项目与“发展中国家科学项目”的目标相关，该项目旨在通过交流科学信息、思想、技能和技术，提高美国科学家和工程师与发展中国家同行之间的合作水平。和技术，并通过合作解决互利的问题。

This proposal requests funds to permit Dr. Stephen J. Culver, Department of Geological Sciences, Old Dominion University, and Dr. Ramzy Khatib, Department of Geology, University of Dakar, Senegal, to enhance, for a period of 24 months, their cooperation, presently supported in part under NSF Grant No. EAR-8816137, on early Cambrian small shelly fossils, stratigraphy, and paleoenvironments in the southwest Taoudeni Basin, West Africa. The paleontologic goal of extensive sample collecting was realized but the other goal of that project, the determination of paleoenvironments, was only partially achieved. The present project will provide support for additional field work by the collaborators and travel by Dr. Khatib to Old Dominion University (1) to undertake x-ray diffraction and radiographic analyses of samples and (2) to collaborate on results and interpretations. The project will add to our knowledge of the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic basins and fold belts in West Africa. It will refine our understanding of the distribution of earliest Cambrian schemes. The project also will result in interpretations of the environments in which these organisms lived, died, and accumulated as fossils. This project is relevant to the objectives of the Science in Developing Countries Program which seeks to increase the level of cooperation between U.S. scientists and engineers and their counterparts in developing countries through the exchange of scientific information, ideas, skills, and techniques and through collaboration on problems of mutual benefit.