Collaborative Research: A Fully Geographically and Stratigraphically Resolved Cretaceous-Tertiary Biostratigraphic Database From Seymour Island, Antarctica

该奖项支持了一个项目，该项目通过融合两个独立开发但互补的应用生物地层学数值技术，分析南极洲西摩岛的动物分布模式，这些技术是在两个先前资助的试点项目中开发的。地层投影分析（SPA）可以将地理上分布的动物群的完整数据集投影到二维截面上。在Excel中对Seymour岛坎帕尼亚-古新世的简单、扁平地层进行了SPA开发。该项目将测试SPA对该岛始新世透镜状、不整合界地层单元的嵌套复合体的更广泛适用性。通过将不同地质图上的不整合面位置投影到显示动物群的截面上，可以找到不整合面空间分辨率的极限。在另一项初步研究中，用Visual Fortran开发的用于Windows环境下地层对比的约束优化算法（CONOP9）证明，基于简约标准，用最佳拟合区间代替概率置信区间是可行的。最佳拟合区间通过利用单个地层剖面之间的不一致性而不是复合剖面中的间隙来提取更多信息，并更接近原始观测结果。该项目将扩展试点研究，纳入从完整的SPA数据库中为坎帕纪至古新世地层提供的许多样条。这种新方法的结合不仅将提高灭绝事件的分辨率，而且还将检验一个假设，即通过收集更多的化石来提高分辨率的速度将存在渐近限制。新方法和完整数据库的结合将把间隙频率分布的基本分析扩展到二维和三维。为了确保广泛传播研究结果，该项目将编制一个完整的西摩Is地理和地层分析数据库。并使普通数据库、电子表格和地理信息系统程序的用户可以很容易地访问它。通过将他们的发现收集到一个易于查询的数据库中，该汇编将为以前nsf资助的国际古生物学研究西摩岛的遗产增加价值。并为未来的巡航提供更清晰的焦点。数值工具将与原始现场数据一起提供。全球生物多样性分析和地质时间尺度的精细化的社会重要性已经被最近的全球数据库倡议（古生物数据库和Chronos）的资助所认识到。西摩岛数据库将作为单个动物群落或连续样带提取。这两种方法的标准数据单位。西摩是。数据库还将为公众提供方便地访问南半球最引人注目的化石矿床之一。该项目是一项新的合作，将在更广泛的现代数值方法方面培训两所机构的研究生。

This award supports a project to analyze faunal distribution patterns from Seymour Island, Antarctica by melding two independently developed, but complimentary, applied biostratigraphic numerical techniques developed in two previously funded pilot projects. Stratigraphic projection analysis (SPA) allows complete datasets of geographically distributed faunas to be projected into two-dimensional cross-sections. SPA was developed in Excel for the simple, tabular, Campanian-Paleocene strata of Seymour Island. This project will test the wider applicability of SPA against the nested complex of lenticular, disconformity-bound, stratal units in the Eocene of the island. The limits of spatial resolution of the disconformity surfaces will be found by projecting their positions from different geologic maps into the cross sections displaying the faunas. In the other pilot study, constrained optimization algorithms (CONOP9), developed in Visual Fortran for stratigraphic correlation in a Windows environment, proved feasible for replacing the probabilistic confidence intervals with best-fit intervals, based on parsimony criteria. The best-fit intervals extract more information and stay closer to the raw observations by exploiting the inconsistencies between individual stratigraphic sections rather than the gaps in a composite section. This project will extend the pilot study to incorporate numerous transects bootstrapped from the full SPA database for the Campanian to Paleocene strata. This combination of new methods will not only improve the resolution of the extinction event, but also test the hypothesis that there will be asymptotic limits to the rate at which the resolution can be improved by collecting more fossils. The combination of new methods and the full database will extend the fundamental analysis of gap frequency distributions to two and three dimensions. To ensure broad dissemination of the results, the project will compile a full geographically and stratigraphically resolved data base of Seymour Is. macrofaunas and make it readily accessible to users of common database, spreadsheet, and GIS programs. By gathering their findings into one easily interrogated database, the compilation will add value to the legacy of prior NSF-funded and international paleontological investigations on Seymour Is. and provide a sharper focus for future cruises. The numerical tools will be made available with the raw field data. The societal importance of analyses of global biodiversity and the refinement of the geologic time scale have both been recognized by the recent funding of global database initiatives (Paleobiology Database and Chronos). The Seymour Island database will be extractable as individual faunal assemblages or continual transects . the standard data units of these two endeavors. The Seymour Is. database will also provide easy access to the general public to one of the most remarkable fossil deposits in the southern Hemisphere. The project is a new collaboration which will train graduate students at both institutions in a wider spectrum of modern numerical methods.