SGER: Morphological Study of a Key Avian Fossil from Antarctica: New Data from X-Ray Computed Tomography and Histology

SGER：南极洲重要鸟类化石的形态学研究：X 射线计算机断层扫描和组织学的新数据

• 批准号: 0408308
• 负责人: Julia Clarke
• 金额: $ 1.36万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-03-15 至 2006-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0408308&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SGER; Morphological; Study; Key; Avian

Clarke has submitted an SGER proposal to support time critical work on bird fossil that must be returned to Argentina by the end of March 2004. The specialized work is x-ray computed tomography imaging to gather detailed anatomical data in a non-destructive fashion. This fossil is a late Cretaceous bird fossil and is important because of its relative completeness and because existing information suggests that it may be a key link in evolution of birds that demonstrates the importance of the Antarctic Peninsula region for bird evolution.The rational for consideration of this as an SGER award is that the work must be completed very soon, before the fossil is returned to Argentina. It would be detrimental to the fossil material to require that the PI's seek to return it to the US at some later time. Also, the work involves two novel approaches to study of fossil material and this work would inform scientific discussions and debates about avian evolution that is occurring now. Delay of acquisition of these data would mean that this debate would not benefit from the new data and this would at least leave open questions in the discussions about bird evolution. Hence, it is very reasonable to use this mechanism to get this work done now, while the material is undergoing other non-destructive work and while the data would be particularly timely to scientific debates.The SGER program does not allow external merit review (see Grant Proposal Guide: NSF 03-041, part II.D.1).

Clarke 提交了一份 SGER 提案，支持对鸟类化石进行时间紧迫的工作，这些化石必须在 2004 年 3 月底之前归还阿根廷。这项专门工作是 X 射线计算机断层扫描成像，以非破坏性方式收集详细的解剖数据。这块化石是白垩纪晚期的鸟类化石，因其相对完整而具有重要意义，而且现有信息表明它可能是鸟类进化的一个关键环节，说明了南极半岛地区对于鸟类进化的重要性。作为 SGER 奖项，这项工作必须尽快完成，然后才能将化石送回阿根廷。要求 PI 稍后将其归还给美国会对化石材料造成损害。此外，这项工作涉及两种新的化石材料研究方法，这项工作将为目前正在发生的有关鸟类进化的科学讨论和辩论提供信息。延迟获取这些数据将意味着这场辩论不会从新数据中受益，这至少会在有关鸟类进化的讨论中留下悬而未决的问题。因此，现在使用这种机制来完成这项工作是非常合理的，同时材料正在进行其他非破坏性工作，并且数据对于科学辩论来说特别及时。SGER 计划不允许外部绩效审查（请参阅资助提案指南：NSF 03-041，第 II.D.1 部分）。