RAPID: Rare Opportunity to Study Ancient Crocodylian Social Dynamics in Extinct Ecosystem (18 mya) from At-Risk Fossil Site (Rusinga, Kenya)

鳄鱼的社会动力学是现代生态系统中的一个新的研究领域，在化石记录中还没有深入研究。一个理想的网站，以测试在社会侵略和同类相食的消费差异存在于鳄鱼为主的化石组合在肯尼亚。由于对住宅的需求增加，该地点目前面临着很高的破坏风险。此外，该地区（或更广泛地说，在肯尼亚）没有人拥有开展这项工作的专门知识、财政手段或可用性。该团队将仔细挖掘和记录这些化石，记录和测量物种间侵略的迹象，并将它们运送到肯尼亚国家博物馆，在那里它们将被提供给全球科学界。现场小组将包括来自美国的两名专家以及当地社区的工作人员。在挖掘过程中，该团队还将向社区提供教育宣传，以帮助提高人们对这些化石对科学学习价值的认识。该项目的目标是从遗址中恢复化石标本，并提供所有必要的地层和位置背景。当每个化石被移除时，该团队将拍摄照片，这些照片随后将用于制作3D摄影测量模型。该项目还将评估每块骨头的物种间侵略的痕迹，记录大小，深度和位置。收集这些数据将有助于我们了解这个古老社区中社会侵略的普遍性，食人行为在多大程度上发挥了作用，以及这可能如何影响生态系统的其他成员。这项研究将发表在同行评审的文献中，并在科学会议上发表，此外还将通过推广活动进行分享。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

Crocodilian social dynamics is a new area of study within modern ecosystems, and has not been studied in depth in the fossil record. An ideal site to test for differences in social aggression and cannibalistic consumption exists at a crocodilian-dominated fossil assemblage in Kenya. The site is currently at high risk of destruction due to an increased need for residential housing. Moreover, no one in the region (or in Kenya broadly), has the expertise, financial means, or availability to conduct this work. The team will carefully excavate and document these fossils, record and measure signs of interspecies aggression, and transport them to the National Museums of Kenya where they will be available to the global scientific community. The on-site team will include two specialists from the United States as well as workers from the local community. During the excavation, the team will also provide educational outreach to the community to help raise awareness of the value of these fossils to scientific learning.The goals of the project are to recover fossil specimens from the site, with all necessary stratigraphic and positional context. As each fossil is removed, the team will take photos that will be later used to make a 3D photogrammetric model. The project will also evaluate each bone for traces of interspecies aggression, recording size, depth and position. Gathering these data will improve our understanding of the pervasiveness of social aggression in this ancient community, the extent to which cannibalism played a role and how this may have affected the other members of the ecosystem. This study will be published in peer-reviewed literature and presented at scientific conferences in addition to being shared through outreach.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.