Biotic Diversity and Vertebrate Evolution in Late Devonian Non-Marine Ecosystems (Catskill Formation: Eastern North America)

小行星9628163 晚泥盆世是非海洋生态系统历史上的一个重要时期，因为它包含了大多数主要有颌鱼类种群的进化多样性，现代生态植物群的发展，以及脊椎动物对陆地的入侵。 大多数在这个时候首次出现的高等类群将在超过3.5亿年的时间里主导世界生物群的组成。 最近在宾夕法尼亚州晚泥盆世的发现揭示了保存完好，高度多样化的脊椎动物组合，发生在地层接近宏化石植物，palynomorphs，节肢动物和双壳类动物。 生物多样性为全球综合研究基底脊椎动物的生殖发育和地理分布以及了解它们进化的生态系统提供了基础。 该提案寻求资金，以记录和解释卡茨基尔三角洲上部（北美东部晚泥盆世-早密西西比世）非海相的生物多样性。 第一个主要目标是调查已知化石组合的系统发育亲缘关系和地层位置;这些综合数据可以对生物多样性进行组内和全球比较。 层内地层关系的评估，使在卡茨基尔三角洲系统的不同部分的生物多样性的理解。 利用锶同位素地球化学和沉积学分析推断泥盆纪脊椎动物的生活习性。 这些方法的目标是重建最早的四足动物生活的环境，并评估影响泥盆纪脊椎动物扩散的障碍。 这些数据与泥盆纪脊椎动物的系统发育和地理数据相结合。 这些数据与非海洋生物的系统发育和地理数据相结合，将为泥盆纪大陆的生物组成以及早期四足动物和鱼类的进化多样化提供新的见解。 该分析将为以下方面提供信息：1）有颌类脊椎动物的高级系统发育假说; 2）四足类和有颌类鱼类分布的地理分析; 3）陆地和淡水生态系统发育的古生物学分析。

9628163 Shubin The Late Devonian was an important interval in the history of non-marine ecosystems because it contains the evolutionary diversification of most major groups of jawed fish, the development of ecologically modern floral assemblages, and the invasion of land by vertebrates. Most of the higher taxa that first appear at this time are to dominate the composition of the world's biotas for over 350 million years. Recent discoveries in the Late Devonian of Pennsylvania reveal well-preserved, highly diverse vertebrate assemblages that occur in close stratigraphic proximity to macrofossil plants, palynomorphs, arthropods, and bivalves. The biotic diversity provides the basis for global syntheses on the phylogeny and biogeographic distribution of basal vertebrates as well as an understanding of the ecosystems in which they evolved. This proposal seeks funds to both document and interpret the biotic diversity of the non-marine facies of the upper portion of the Catskill Delta (Late Devonian-Early Mississippian, eastern North America). The first major goal is to investigate the phylogenetic affinities and stratigraphic position of known fossil assemblages; these combined data allow both intraformation and global comparisons of biotic diversity. Assessment of intraformational stratigraphic relationships enables an understanding of the biotic diversity in different portions of the Catskill Delta system. Strontium isotope geochemistry and sedimentological analysis are used to infer life habits of Devonian vertebrates. The goal of these approaches is to reconstruct the environments in which the earliest tetrapods lived and assess the barriers that affected the dispersal of Devonian vertebrates. These data, when integrated with both phylogenetic and geographic data of Devonian vertebrates. These data, when integrated with both phylogenetic and geographic data of non-marine organisms, will provide new insights on the biotic composition of Devonian continents as well as the evolutionar y diversification of early tetrapods and fish. This analysis will inform: 1) higher level phylogenetic hypotheses of gnathostome vertebrates, 2) biogeographic analysis of the distribution of the tetrapods and jawed fish, and 3) paleobiological analysis of the elaboration of terrestrial and freshwater ecosytems.