Paleogeography and paleoclimate of a unique Paleogene biota in arctic Canada

0124654马林科维奇这个美洲计划SGER（探索性研究小额赠款）奖将允许路易·马林科维奇博士和一组美国和加拿大的研究人员于2001年7月在埃尔斯米尔岛中西部的海湾峡湾附近进行为期三周的旅行，作为一项试点研究，将首次，协调几位专家的努力，以破译该地区独特生物群的古生物地理和古气候重要性。该奖项将由国际项目司和国家科学基金会地质和古生物学项目共同支持。加拿大北方埃尔斯米尔岛尤里卡海峡群岩石（北纬78-79度），记录了一个不寻常的时间，50-60百万年前，当高北极是鳄鱼，巨龟，各种哺乳动物，（包括灵长类动物和犀牛）、林地和广阔的低地沼泽。软体动物在陆地和邻近的温暖海洋中繁衍生息。 尽管总体上鲜为人知，但这些多样而丰富的化石是地球早期新生代北极气候的唯一保存完好的记录，包括这个时代最北部已知的海洋和陆地生物群。在如此高的纬度地区存在这种多样和丰富的新生代早期海洋和陆地生物群，可能是北极最深刻的古生物学之谜。 研究脊椎动物，植物和软体动物化石将增加我们对这一丰富生物群的了解，完善其年龄，为长期切断的欧洲-北美陆地连接提供见解，并破译过去6500万年来最温暖的全球气候的极地表达。

0124654MarincovichThis Americas Program SGER (Small Grants for Exploratory Research) award will allow Dr. Louie Marincovich and a group of U.S. and Canadian researchers to undertake a three-week trip in July 2001, near Bay Fiord in west-central Ellesmere Island, as a pilot study that will, for the first time, coordinate the efforts of several specialists to decipher the paleobiogeographic and paleoclimatic importance of the unique biota of this area. The award will be jointly supported between the Division of International Programs and the Geology and Paleontology Program of NSF.Rocks of the Eureka Sound Group on Ellesmere Island, northern Canada (78-79 degree N latitude), record an unusual time, 50-60 million years ago, when the high Arctic was home to alligators, giant tortoises, diverse mammals, (including primates and rhinoceroses), woodlands and vast lowland swamps. Mollusks thrived on land and in the adjacent warm ocean. Although little-known overall, these diverse and abundant fossils are the only well-preserved record of the Earth's early Cenozoic arctic climate, and comprise the northernmost known marine and terrestrial biota of this age These animals and plants lived in an extinct environment, combining a warm-temperate climate with an arctic light regime of bright summers and dark winters. The presence of this diverse and abundant early Cenozoic marine and terrestrial biota at such high latitudes comprises what may be the most profound paleontological mystery in the Arctic. Studying the fossil vertebrates, plants and mollusks will increase our understanding of this rich biota, refine its age, provide insights into long-severed European-North American land connections, and decipher the polar expression of the warmest global climate of the past 65 million years.***