The Late Triassic Tetrapod Fauna of the Fleming Fjord Formation, East Greenland

哺乳动物起源所涉及的形态转变，以及晚三叠世四足动物群的组成变化，是本研究的重点。该奖项支持检索对解决与含化石的大陆沉积物有关的哺乳动物起源问题至关重要的材料；这种关联已经在东格陵兰岛詹姆逊之地的晚三叠世弗莱明峡湾组中被发现，该地区的地层和岩性暴露范围比之前发现的晚三叠世哺乳动物范围更大。已经确定了几个保存完好的较小脊椎动物骨骼密集的地点。该奖项将支持对微型动物群所在地的实地调查，这可能为理解哺乳动物的起源以及评估目前关于晚三叠世脊椎动物区系演化的假说提供关键证据。

The morphological transitions involved in the origin of mammals, and the composition changes in tetrapod faunas during the Late Triassic, are the foci of this research. This award supports the retrieval of material critical to addressing the problem of mammalian origins in association with fossiliferous, continental sediments; such an association has been discovered in the Late Triassic Fleming Fjord Formation of Jameson Land in East Greenland, an area that offers a greater range of stratigraphic and lithologic exposures than those in which Late Triassic mammals have previously been found. Several localities with dense concentrations of well preserved bones of smaller vertebrates have been identified. This award will support field investigations of microfaunal localities which may provide evidence critical to understanding mammalian origins as well as evaluating current hypotheses of vertebrate faunal evolution during the Late Triassic.