Cenozoic Vertebrate Paleontology and Biogeography of the West Indies

该项目旨在评估加勒比岛屿淡水鱼类和陆地脊椎动物生物地理学的竞争性模型。它的新颖之处在于，它将强调来自两个来源的数据，这两个来源对这个问题至关重要，但一直被忽视：第三纪化石记录和古巴岛。研究人员最近在西印度群岛成功地发现了第三纪脊椎动物，这表明可以恢复重要的相关化石记录。古巴特别重要，因为这个岛屿占安的列斯群岛陆地面积的三分之一，但人们对它的生物群却知之甚少。为了使结果最大化，研究人员将在伊斯帕尼奥拉岛和古巴寻找第四纪和第三纪的化石。主要目标是：(1)增加已知分类群的样本量，寻找未知的分类群；(2)开展第四纪大型动物群灭绝时间的测年工作；(3)确定大安的列斯群岛前第四纪生物多样性的性质；(4)利用古代生物多样性作为评价安的列斯动物群形成过程中分散和变异（即板块构造事件）相对重要性的手段；(5)开发多米尼加共和国的人力资源，以提高当地研究和保护生物多样性的能力。这些目标是对调查人员调查岛屿和类岛屿环境中生物多样性减少的原因和后果的总体计划的补充。

This project is designed to evaluate competing models of biogeography of freshwater fishes and land vertebrates in the Caribbean islands. Its novel aspect is that it will emphasize data from two sources that are critical to the problem, but which have been neglected: the Tertiary fossil record and the island of Cuba. The investigators' recent successes in discovering Tertiary vertebrates in the West Indies demonstrate that a significant and relevant fossil record can be recovered. Cuba is of particular importance because this island constitutes one-third of the land surface of the Antilles, yet its biota is known in only a rudimentary way. To maximize results, the investigators will prospect for fossils in both Quaternary and Tertiary contexts in Hispaniola and Cuba. Major goals are (1) to increase sample sizes of poorly known taxa and to prospect for heretofore unknown taxa; (2) to begin a program of dating to document when the Quaternary fauna of large animals went extinct; (3) to establish the nature of pre-Quaternary biodiversity in the Greater Antilles; (4) to utilize ancient biodiversity as a means for evaluating the comparative importance of dispersal and vicariance (i.e., plate tectonic events) in formation of the Antillean fauna; and (5) to develop human resources in the Dominican Republic in order to enhance local ability to study and conserve biodiversity. These goals are complementary to the investigators' general program of investigating causes and consequences of reduction in biodiversity on island and in islandlike settings.