DISSERTATION RESEARCH: An integrative assessment of body size and growth patterns in therocephalian synapsids before and after the end-Permian extinction

论文研究：二叠纪末灭绝前后兽头纲突弓动物体型和生长模式的综合评估

• 批准号: 1209018
• 负责人: Christian Sidor
• 金额: $ 1.44万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-06-01 至 2014-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1209018&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; integrative; assessment; body

This award supports two years of doctoral research to complete an investigation of body size and life history (growth and reproduction) tactics in the therapsid ancestors of mammals before and after the end-Permian extinction (ca. 252 million years ago), a period of intense ecosystem instability in which more than 90% of animal species on Earth became extinct. Based on a large sample of mammal-like therapsid fossils from the Karoo Basin of South Africa, we will integrate hard-tissue histology (bone tissue growth) and phylogenetic comparative methods to assess for the first time whether body size reductions and changes in vascular growth patterns recorded in the bones of therapsids were driven by the end-Permian extinction. In doing so, we address how increased environmental stress and instability may influence life history evolution in major vertebrate groups on a macroevolutionary scale. This study will also shed light on the origins of novel life history strategies, such as rapid, determinate (mammal-like) growth in our own mammalian lineage.The funding will assist in the maintenance of an active histological facility and analytical resources to support student projects and lab-based course materials, offering opportunities for professional development of underprivileged future scientists and providing new teaching resources to our institution. Data will be archived on a freely-accessible online database of histology images and similar electronic data repositories (e.g., Paleobiology Database). Additionally, work with South African institutions will strengthen international collaborations and raise awareness of natural history, evolution, and extinction within a newly industrialized country, and will help inform decisions on protecting extant biodiversity by forecasting long term biotic responses to future ecosystem perturbations.

该奖项支持为期两年的博士研究，以完成对二叠纪末灭绝（约 2.52 亿年前）前后哺乳动物的兽孔类祖先的体型和生活史（生长和繁殖）策略的调查。生态系统严重不稳定，导致地球上 90% 以上的动物物种灭绝。基于南非卡鲁盆地的大量类哺乳动物兽孔类化石样本，我们将整合硬组织组织学（骨组织生长）和系统发育比较方法，首次评估体型缩小和血管生长变化是否兽孔类骨骼中记录的模式是由二叠纪末灭绝驱动的。在此过程中，我们探讨了环境压力和不稳定性的增加如何在宏观进化尺度上影响主要脊椎动物群体的生活史进化。这项研究还将揭示新的生活史策略的起源，例如我们自己的哺乳动物谱系中快速、确定的（类似哺乳动物）的生长。这笔资金将有助于维护活跃的组织学设施和分析资源，以支持学生项目和基于实验室的课程材料，为贫困的未来科学家的专业发展提供机会，并为我们的机构提供新的教学资源。数据将存档在可免费访问的组织学图像在线数据库和类似的电子数据存储库（例如古生物学数据库）中。此外，与南非机构的合作将加强国际合作，提高新兴工业化国家对自然历史、进化和灭绝的认识，并通过预测生物对未来生态系统扰动的长期反应，帮助为保护现有生物多样性的决策提供信息。