COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: A Lower-to Middle-Jurassic Terrestrial Vertebrate Assemblage and Its Implications for the Post-Triassic Radiation of Tetrapods

在这次更新中，PIS将与墨西哥同事合作，完成对来自墨西哥东北部惠扎查尔峡谷的早期侏罗纪小型脊椎动物化石组合的跨学科研究。这些化石代表了一个罕见的例子，这种显然是世界性的、低多样性的动物群，在三叠纪末期灭绝后分布在泛古大陆的大部分地区。将完成的三条研究路线是：1)研究一些新发现的化石，包括一种新的蝶齿类化石的头骨；2)从适当的地点收集和分析花粉；3)将地层延伸到邻近的峡谷，建立化石地层的岩石地层关系。将进行一些额外的地球化学分析和放射性测年，以帮助确定这些化石地层的年龄。

In this renewal, PIs will, in collaboration with Mexican colleagues, finish work on an interdisciplinary study of an early Jurassic assemblage of small fossil vertebrates from Huizachal Canyon, NE Mexico. These fossils represent a rare example of the apparently cosmopolitan, low-diversity fauna distributed throughout most of Pangaea after the end-Triassic extinction. Three lines of research to be completed are 1) study some newly discovered fossils, including skulls of a new sphenodontian, 2) collect and analyze pollen from appropriate localities, and 3) extend the stratigraphy into neighboring canyons to establish lithostratigraphic relationships of the fossil-bearing beds. Some additional geochemical analyses and radiometric dating will be conducted to help establish the age of these fossil-bearing strata.