DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Temporal Nature of Species Richness-Temperature Patterns in the Early Eocene of Wyoming

生态学中最古老的模式之一是观察到，几乎任何较大的生物群体的物种多样性都是从两极向热带增加的。如此强大的模式自然吸引了相当多的关注，并导致了许多解释，例如，环境温度与多样性直接相关。为了帮助区分这些，建议通过检查地质学过去不同时期同一地理位置的蜥蜴多样性来收集一组新的数据，而不是研究目前的多样性，因为它在空间上有所不同。 大约5500万年前的显著气候变化是这项研究的理想背景。为了统一保存，选择了怀俄明州沉积记录中的七个地点。蜥蜴物种，其中大多数是小的，其中许多是新的科学，将被描述。过去的温度将估计使用地球化学技术对搪瓷。然后将比较物种多样性和温度，以确定这两个数量是否密切相关，或者其他解释是否更好地解释了数据。拟议的工作对评估气候变化的潜在影响，特别是全球变暖具有更广泛的相关性。该项目将支持博士生的论文研究。

One of the most venerable patterns in ecology is the observation that species diversity in nearly any larger group of organisms increases from the poles toward the tropics. So robust a pattern has naturally attracted considerable attention and has resulted in numerous proposed explanations, for example, that ambient temperature is directly related to diversity. To help discriminate among these it is proposed to collect a new set of data by examining lizard diversity in the same geographic spot at different times in the geologic past, rather than studying diversity at the present time as it varies across space. Remarkable climate change about 55 million years ago serves as an ideal background for this study. Seven localities in the sedimentary record of Wyoming have been selected for uniformity of preservation. The lizard species, most of them small and many of them new to science, will be described. Past temperature will be estimated using geochemical techniques on fossilized enamel. Species diversity and temperature will then be compared in order to determine if these two quantities are closely related or whether other explanations better account for the data. The proposed work has broader relevance for evaluating the potential effects of climate change, specifically global warming. This project will support the dissertation research of a doctoral candidate.