EAR-PF Bringing fossil cephalopods back to life: virtual and physical assessment of hydrostatics, hydrodynamics, and functional morphology

NSF EAR博士后奖学金授予大卫·J·彼得曼，在凯瑟琳·里特布什博士的指导下，他将在犹他大学开展研究和教育计划。该研究项目重点研究头足类化石(如鹦鹉螺、菊石等)的水生生物力学。理清贝壳形态与功能的关系。在其广泛的进化史上，数以千计的头足类物种在作为海洋生态系统的重要组成部分的同时，试验了截然不同的贝壳形态。尽管它们的丰富性、多样性和快速更替，人们对其特有的形态类型所呈现的特定生活方式或生活习性，或某些贝壳特征的功能形态知之甚少。因此，了解这些不同生物的特性对于将形态纳入当前对进化和灭绝的把握、对生物地理扩散的限制以及海洋生态系统这些关键组成部分的古生态是必要的。该项目将建立一个自给自足的、最先进的水生生物力学实验室，同时促进工程和计算机科学方面的新兴技术教育，从而促进多学科合作的重要性。为了研究有壳头足动物的生态学和进化之间的相互作用，PI将开发一种尖端的工作流程，在虚拟和物理环境中生成中性浮力的头足类动物模型。提出的化石虚拟建模是断层成像技术的另一种方法。此外，它们的物理对应项可用于在混乱的真实世界环境中评估复杂的物理属性。这样的模型将允许计算在生命中作用于这些动物的物理特性。这些特性包括流体静力学(中性浮力、稳定性、生命方向、运动方向效率的条件)和流体动力学(拖曳、提升和游泳能力)。这些特性对于更好地理解对运动、生活方式、生活习惯、古生态以及作用于目标头足类的选择压力(从个体群落的规模到整个形态类型)的限制是基本的。由于甲壳头足类的广泛时间范围、无处不在、多样性和广泛的地理分布，评估它们的共生物理特性对于在显生界的大部分时间内完全重建几乎任何海洋生态系统都是至关重要的。这个项目得到了地球科学部沉积地质学和古生物学项目的共同资助。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

An NSF EAR Postdoctoral Fellowship has been granted to David J. Peterman to carry out research and education plans at the University of Utah under the mentorship of Dr. Kathleen Ritterbush. The research project focuses on investigating the aquatic biomechanics of fossil cephalopods (e.g. nautiloids, ammonoids, etc.) to disentangle the relationship between shell form and function. During their extensive evolutionary history, thousands of cephalopod species experimented with wildly different shell morphologies while serving as vital components of marine ecosystems. Despite their abundance, diversity, and rapid turnover, little is known about the specific modes of life or life habit assumed by characteristic morphotypes, or the functional morphology of certain shell features. Therefore, understanding the properties of these diverse organisms is necessary to integrate morphology into the current grasp of evolution and extinction, the constraints on biogeographic dispersal, and the paleoecology of these key components of marine ecosystems. The project will construct a self-sustaining, state-of-the-art, aquatic biomechanics laboratory while fostering education in emerging technologies in engineering and computer science, and thus promoting the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration. In order to investigate the interaction between ecology and evolution for shelled cephalopods, the PI will develop a cutting-edge workflow for the generation of neutrally buoyant cephalopod models in virtual and physical settings. The proposed virtual modeling of fossils serves as an alternate approach to tomographic techniques. Additionally, their physical counterparts can be used to assess complex physical properties in a chaotic, real world setting. Such models will allow the computation of physical properties that acted on these animals during life. These properties include hydrostatics (the conditions for neutral buoyancy, stability, life orientation, the directional efficiency of movement) and hydrodynamics (drag, lift, and swimming capabilities). Such properties are fundamental to better understand the constraints on locomotion, modes of life, life habit, paleoecology, and the selective pressures acting on the targeted cephalopods (from the scale of individual communities to entire morphotypes). Due to the vast temporal range, ubiquity, diversity, and extensive geographic distributions of shelled cephalopods, evaluating their syn vivo physical properties is vital to fully-reconstruct almost any marine ecosystem during most of the Phanerozoic Eon. This project received co-funding from the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology program in the Earth Science division.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.