ELT: Collaborative Research: Stratigraphic refinement, systematic and biogeographic relationships of the late Cretaceous-Paleocene Deccan biota of India

这是一个对印度沉积物中解剖学保存的植物化石进行详细研究的项目，这些植物生长于印度次大陆即将与南亚碰撞的时期。研究的重点是由于大陆碰撞而发生的植物区系变化，以及据推测造成的全球生物灾难。在晚白垩世-早古新世的主要高原玄武岩喷发之间的间隔期间发育的圈闭层以其化石含量而闻名，包括陆生哺乳动物、恐龙、哺乳动物、软体动物和丰富的植物化石。这项研究的重点化石是古生物学记录中最广泛和保存最完好的化石。详细了解这些地层中保存的植物化石，以及从晚白垩世到早第三纪基底的植物区系更替，将为理解气候和植物区系变化之间的关系提供基准。它具有很大的潜力，可以提供有关植被变化的见解，这些变化可能是由于目前开始的全球气候变化造成的。显然，这些见解将有助于预测我们在不久的将来可能看到的全球植被变化的类型，并有助于为如何通过选择性资源分配来管理这些变化的决策提供信息。PI团队所代表的学科以及所提出的方法是全面的，并且对于通过地球历史上这一关键时期的植物区系变化表征所产生的重要见解具有潜在的变革性。结合使用基础广泛的植物系统学，再加上花，水果和木材的详细研究，以解决这些重要问题是一个最雄心勃勃和创造性的方法，以前没有尝试过。

This is a project to conduct detailed studies of anatomically preserved fossil plants from deposits in India that were growing at a time when the Indian subcontinent was about to collide with southern Asia. The focus of the research is on the floristic changes that occurred as a result of that continental collision, and the global biological catastrophe that it is hypothesized to have caused. The Intertrappean beds developed during intervals between major plateau basalt eruptions of the late Cretaceous-early Paleocene are famous for their fossil content, including remains of terrestrial mammals, dinosaurs, mammals, molluscs and abundant fossil plants. Fossils that are the focus of this study are among the most extensive and well preserved in the paleontological record. Detailed knowledge of the fossil plants preserved in those beds, and the floristic turnover from the Late Cretaceous through the basal Paleogene will provide a benchmark for understanding the relationship between climatic and floristic change.Because this study will focus on climate-change driven changes in regional and global floristics, it has great potential to provide insights about vegetational changes that are likely to result from the global climate change that is beginning at this time. Obviously, these insights will help predict the types of global vegetational changes that we may expect to see in the near future, and help inform decisions about how to manage such changes through the selective allocation of resources. The disciplines thatare represented by the PI team, and the approach that has been proposed is comprehensive and potentially transformative with respect to the vital insights that will result from characterization of floristic changes through this crucial period in the history of the earth. The combined use of broad-based plant systematics, coupled with detailed studies of flowers, fruits, and wood to address these importantquestions is a most ambitions and creative approach that has not previously been attempted.