Collaborative Research: RUI: Exploring early metazoan reef evolution through a multi-scale approach

浅水珊瑚礁被称为“进化的摇篮”。通过研究古代珊瑚礁的遗迹，科学家们可以深入了解地球上最早的动物对生态和进化的影响，以及我们的星球从一个由微生物主导的世界到我们今天所知道的世界的转变。在这里，研究人员提议对加拿大西北部的小Dal珊瑚礁进行多学科和多尺度的调查，这些珊瑚礁形成于近10亿年前，是我们星球上最早的海绵遗迹的所在地。在这项研究中，研究小组将利用各种方法——从无人机衍生的露头模型到海绵化石的3D重建，再到同位素分析——来提高我们对小Dal珊瑚礁的居民（例如，10亿年前地球上真的有海绵吗？）和生态（例如，谁或什么建造了珊瑚礁？）的理解。这项工作将包括在一个鼓励合作、跨学科、包容和国际科学方法的框架内培养本科生、研究生和博士后。此外，研究人员建议指导一名来自辛普森堡、诺曼威尔斯和好望角堡的第一民族Sahtu /Dene社区的学生，并在整个项目中与这些社区接触。最近，科学家们认为，在加拿大西北部的托尼亚小Dal群中发现的蚓状微观结构（VERM）代表了岩石记录中最古老的多孔级生物的遗骸。任何关于元古代的后生生物礁居住（或建造）的主张都需要使用多学科方法进行仔细考虑和评估。在此，研究人员建议通过多尺度野外和分析研究来探索小Dal礁系统的生态学和形态学。他们的目标是1)确定VERM是否明确地是海绵级生物的遗骸，因此代表了最早的后生动物珊瑚礁居民；2)量化小Dal珊瑚礁系统的微观到宏观形态，包括表面粗糙度、生态区带和组成珊瑚礁成分的丰度等特征。对新元古代海绵遗骸的生物学亲和性的任何分配都将对我们理解后生动物进化的速度和模式具有广泛的意义。此外，他们的发现将使整个地质记录中的化石珊瑚礁之间的定量比较成为可能。这样的比较将有助于绘制出从早期元古宙的纯微生物礁到显生宙的后生宙框架礁过渡的时间和结构性质。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Shallow water reefs have been called "cradles of evolution." By studying the remains of ancient reefs, scientists can gain critical insights into the ecological and evolutionary impact of Earth's earliest animals and our planet's transition from a world dominated by microbes to the one we know today. Here, the researchers propose a multidisciplinary and multiscale survey of the Little Dal reefs in northwestern Canada, which formed nearly one billion years ago and are home to the earliest purported remains of sponges on our planet. In this study, the team will utilize various methods—from drone-derived models of outcrops to 3D reconstructions of the sponge fossils to isotopic analyses—to improve our understanding of the inhabitants (e.g., were there truly sponges on Earth a billion years ago?) and ecology (e.g., who or what built the reefs?) of the Little Dal reefs. This work will involve training undergraduate and graduate students and a postdoctoral fellow within a framework that encourages a collaborative, interdisciplinary, inclusive, and international scientific approach. Additionally, the researchers propose to mentor a student from the First Nations Sahtu ́/Dene communities of Fort Simpson, Norman Wells, and Fort Good Hope and engage with these communities throughout the project. Recently, scientists have posited that vermiform microstructures (VERM), found in the Tonian Little Dal Group of northwestern Canada, represent the remains of the oldest poriferan-grade organism in the rock record. Any claim of metazoan reef inhabitation (or construction) during the Proterozoic requires careful consideration and evaluation using a multidisciplinary approach. Here, the researchers propose to explore the ecology and morphology of the Little Dal reef system via a multiscale field and analytical study. They aim to 1) determine whether VERM are unambiguously the remains of a sponge-grade organism and therefore representative of the earliest metazoan reef inhabitants, and 2) quantify the micro- to macro-scale morphologies of the Little Dal reef system, including characteristics such as surface roughness, ecological zonation, and the abundance of constituent reef components. Any assignment of biological affinity for putative Neoproterozoic sponge remains will have broad implications for our understanding of the tempo and mode of metazoan evolution. Additionally, their findings will enable quantitative comparisons between fossil reefs throughout the geological record. Such comparisons will help chart the timing and structural nature of the transition from purely microbial reefs of the earlier Proterozoic to metazoan framework reefs of the Phanerozoic.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.