Paleobiogeography of Austral Decapod Crustaceans

该奖项支持对南半球的螃蟹和龙虾化石的研究，目的是了解这些化石与软体动物和有孔虫的古地理框架。对南极洲和南半球其他高纬度地区的螃蟹和龙虾化石的实地工作和实验室分析现在提供了一个强大的数据库，可以从中辨别古生物地理分布的模式。在国家科学基金会的支持下，最近的实地工作已经收集了几个新的动物群，它们比以前可能的情况更狭隘地限制了南极化石生物群对北方的影响。对这些动物群的实验室分析，再加上对马达加斯加和南极洲亚历山大岛其他工作人员在博物馆收集的大量化石的检查，将确保首席调查员检查并确认来自南半球中高纬度的所有已知十足类动物的身份。因此，对这些生物的了解将足以合成它们的地质历史和进化，这反过来将使人们有可能根据更常见的保存下来的软体动物和微生物的模型来测试这些动物的古生物地理框架。

Feldmann OPP 9526252 Abstract This award supports a study of fossil crabs and lobsters from the southern hemisphere with the goal of understanding the paleobiogephraphic framework of these fossils compared to molluscs and foraminifera. Field work and laboratory analysis of fossil crabs and lobsters from Antarctica and other high latitude sites in the southern hemisphere has now provided a robust data base from which the pattern of paleobiogeographic distribution can be discerned. Recent field work, supported by the National Science Foundation, has resulted in the collection of several new faunas which more narrowly constrain the northern influence of Antarctic fossil biotas than has been possible previously. Laboratory analysis of these faunas coupled with examination of significant museum fossil collections made by other workers in Madagascar and on Alexander Island, Antarctica, will assure that the principal investigator will have examined and confirmed the identification of all known decapods from the mid and high southern latitudes. As a result, knowledge of these organisms will be great enough to synthesize their geologic history and evolution which, in turn, will make it possible to test the paleobiogeographic framework of these animals against models based upon the more commonly preserved molluscs and microorganisms.