US - Peru Planning Visit: Planning a Collaborative Program of Vertebrate Paleontology in Northwestern Peru

这个美国-秘鲁规划访问奖将建立在秘鲁西北部的脊椎动物古生物学的合作计划，形成佛罗里达大学（UF）和国立皮乌拉大学（UNP）之间的伙伴关系。 该计划将支持一名高级研究员和两名美国研究生在UF的大卫斯蒂德曼博士的指导下，他们将与UNP古生物学研究所所长Jean-Noël Martinez博士及其学生合作。 两所学校的学生和教授将计划一个研究项目，该项目将在2012-13年度获得更大规模的资助。 长期以来，研究人员一直对美洲热带地区动物的分布和多样性感兴趣，以及气候变化（冰川-间冰期循环）如何影响这些现象。 计划中的访问将侧重于Talara焦油渗漏（TTS）的实地和实验室研究，这是一个沥青天然陷阱，拥有丰富的20，000年前的两栖动物，爬行动物，鸟类和哺乳动物化石。 自20世纪50年代和60年代以来，TTS没有正式的挖掘。 然而，过去气候更潮湿的证据来自先前挖掘的TTS化石，表明TTS曾经存在过更丰富的植物群落。 马丁内斯博士是秘鲁哺乳动物化石的权威，他和他的学生在皮乌拉500公里范围内的许多地方发现了脊椎动物化石。 UNP团队将研究由此产生的哺乳动物化石，而UF团队将研究鸟类化石，两个团队都将研究两栖动物和爬行动物化石。 对化石的分析将极大地提高对这一气候敏感地区过去气候变化的认识。这种国际合作将提供机会，培训、教育和汇集来自美国和秘鲁的学生和研究人员。 除了与秘鲁同事建立合作，用友科学家将在UNP讲课，而两个美国研究生将获得这个奖项的国际研究经验。 此外，秘鲁本科生将有机会前往用友，并与用友学生开发定向研究项目。 最后，这些访问有可能产生一个更大的国际计划，将扩大我们的知识，如何改变过去的气候在美洲热带地区影响了该地区的生物多样性。

This U.S. - Peru planning visit award will establish a collaborative program of vertebrate paleontology in northwestern Peru by forming a partnership between University of Florida (UF) and Universidad Nacional de Piura (UNP). The program will support one senior researcher and two U.S. graduate students under the direction of Dr. David Steadman from UF and they will collaborate with Dr. Jean-Noël Martinez, Director of the Institute of Paleontology at UNP, and his students. Students and professors from both schools will plan a research program for which larger-scale funding will be pursued in 2012-13. Researchers have long been interested in the distribution and diversity of animals in the American tropics, and how changing climates (glacial-interglacial cycles) have affected these phenomena. The planning visits will focus on field and laboratory research at the Talara Tar Seeps (TTS), an asphaltic natural trap with abundant 20,000 year old fossils of amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There have been no formal excavations at the TTS since the 1950s and 1960s. However, evidence of a wetter past climate comes from previously excavated TTS fossils, indicating a richer plant community must have existed once at TTS. Dr. Martinez, a leading authority on Peruvian fossil mammals, and his students have discovered vertebrate fossils in many localities within 500 kilometers of Piura. The UNP team will study the resulting mammal fossils, whereas the UF team will study the bird fossils, and both teams will study the amphibian and reptile fossils. The analyses of fossils will vastly improve the understanding of past climate change in this climatically sensitive region.This international collaboration will provide opportunities to train, educate, and bring together students and researchers from the United States and Peru. In addition to establishing collaborations with their Peruvian colleagues, UF scientists will give lectures at UNP while two U.S. graduate students will receive an international research experience from this award. Furthermore, Peruvian undergraduate students will be given the opportunity to travel to UF and develop directed research projects with UF students. Finally, these visits have the potential to generate a larger international program that will expand our knowledge of how changing past climates in the American tropics have affected the biodiversity of the region.