Filling the Norian (Late Triassic) Gap in Tropical Tetrapod Diversity, Eastern North America

该项目旨在收集和分析北美东部纽瓦克超级群裂谷盆地诺里亚时代（晚三叠世，202-218 Ma）地层中新的四足动物材料（骨骼和足迹），作为了解三叠纪动物省性和三叠纪-侏罗纪大灭绝事件的前驱。这一时间段和地理区域的四足动物多样性分析至关重要，因为纽瓦克超级群提供了独特的时间控制，特别是由于美国国家科学基金会资助的纽瓦克盆地取心项目。这种新材料将允许测试有关北美东部大陆岩石中三叠纪-侏罗纪大灭绝的速度和规模的相互竞争的假设。增加对诺里亚四足动物多样性的了解，不仅可以让我们对中生代早期的世界有更深入的了解，更重要的是，可以让我们对过去6亿年来最大的一次物种大灭绝期间的多样性模式有一个详细的了解。图像和形态、系统发育、地理、地层学和时间数据库将通过万维网的拉蒙特主页和CD提供。

9814475OlsenThis project seeks to collect and analyze new tetrapod material (both skeletal and footprint) in Norian-age (Late Triassic, 202-218 Ma) strata of the Newark Supergroup rift basins of eastern North America as a prelude to understanding Triassic faunal provinciality and the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction event. Analysis of tetrapod diversity from this time interval and geographic region is critical because of the unique time control afforded by the Newark Supergroup, particularly the Newark basin as a result of the NSF-funded Newark Basin Coring Project. This new material will allow tests of competing hypotheses concerning the rate and magnitude of the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction in the continental rocks of eastern North America. Increased knowledge of Norian tetrapod diversity can be expected to not only yield insights into the world of the early Mesozoic, but more importantly give us a detailed understanding of the diversity patterns during one the largest mass extinctions of the last 600 million years. Images and morphological, phylogenetic, geographic, stratigraphic, and temporal databases will be made available through the Lamont Home Page of the World Wide Web and on CD.