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

这是一个对解剖保存下来的化石植物进行详细研究的项目，这些化石植物来自印度的沉积物，这些沉积物在印度次大陆即将与南亚碰撞之际不断增长。研究的重点是由于大陆碰撞而发生的植物区系变化，以及假设它所造成的全球生物灾难。在白垩纪晚期至古新世早期的主要高原玄武岩喷发之间发育的圈闭间层以其化石含量而闻名，包括陆生哺乳动物、恐龙、哺乳动物、软体动物的遗骸和丰富的植物化石。这项研究的重点化石是古生物记录中最广泛和保存最完好的化石之一。对这些地层中保存的植物化石的详细了解，以及从晚白垩世到古近纪底部的植物区系更替，将为理解气候变化和植物区系变化之间的关系提供基准。由于这项研究将侧重于气候变化驱动的区域和全球植物区系变化，因此它具有很大的潜力来提供关于可能由此时开始的全球气候变化所导致的植被变化的见解。显然，这些见解将有助于预测我们可能在不久的将来看到的全球植被变化的类型，并有助于为如何通过有选择地分配资源来管理此类变化提供决策依据。在描述地球历史上这一关键时期植物区系变化所产生的重要见解方面，PI团队所代表的学科和提出的方法是全面的，并具有潜在的变革性。结合使用基础广泛的植物系统学，再加上对花、水果和木材的详细研究来解决这些重要的问题，是一种以前从未尝试过的最具雄心和创造性的方法。

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.