Collaborative Research: testing the link between climate and mammalian faunal dynamics in the early Paleocene record of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico

合作研究：测试新墨西哥州圣胡安盆地古新世早期记录中气候与哺乳动物动物群动态之间的联系

• 批准号: 1325552
• 负责人: Daniel Peppe
• 金额: $ 16.74万
• 依托单位: Baylor University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1325552&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; testing; link; between; Collaborative; Research; testing; link; between

Collaborative Research: Testing the link between climate and mammalianfaunal dynamics in the early Paleocene record of the San Juan Basin, New Mexico byThomas Williamson, New Mexico Museum of Natural History Foundation EAR-1325544Ross Secord, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, EAR-1325612Daniel Peppe, Baylor University, EAR-1325552ABSTRACTThe Nacimiento Formation of northwestern New Mexico contains the most complete, diverse, and longest record of early Paleocene mammal evolution known anywhere in the world, spanning from about 65.8 to 62.2 million years ago. The early Paleocene is of particular importance for understanding the evolution of modern ecosystems because it includes the first mammal-dominated ecosystems that appeared immediately following the end-Cretaceous extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. This was a time when the world was warmer than now and the climate appears to have been unstable. This study will test for a relationship between climate and mammalian faunal change in the early Paleocene, and will provide a better understanding of the role climate change played in the establishment of the earliest mammal-dominated ecosystems. This project will test if mammals responded to climate change during this critical interval of time by generating a detailed climate record, including estimates of mean annual temperature and precipitation from leaf-margin and leaf-area analyses of fossil leaves, and from the study of ancient soils. This study will also reconstruct the ancient biomes present at this time and the habitats within those biomes using stable carbon isotopes from mammal teeth, and the types of depositional environments present using sedimentology. These various proxy records will be compared to test for correlations between the mammalian faunal record and changing climate or changing biomes in the early Paleocene. Results from this study should be useful for developing more accurate models for predicting the consequences of climate change. This project will provide educational and research opportunities for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including Native American students from New Mexico, which are greatly underrepresented in the sciences, and "at risk" 6-8th grade students from Nebraska. The results of this research will also be incorporated into a permanent museum exhibit at the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

合作研究：测试气候与哺乳动物动力学之间的联系，在新墨西哥州圣胡安盆地的早期新世纪记录中西北新墨西哥州西北部的Nacimiento地层包含最完整，最多样化和最长的古新世哺乳动物进化记录，世界上任何地方都众所周知，大约65.8至6220万年前。古新世早期对于理解现代生态系统的演变非常重要，因为它包括第一个以哺乳动物为主的生态系统，这些生态系统立即出现在非阿比亚恐龙的最终美质灭绝之后。这是世界比现在更温暖的时期，气候似乎不稳定。这项研究将测试古新世早期气候与哺乳动物动物变化之间的关系，并将更好地理解气候变化在最早建立哺乳动物主导的生态系统中所扮演的角色。该项目将通过产生详细的气候记录来测试在此关键时间间隔内哺乳动物是否对气候变化做出了反应，包括对化石叶子的叶片水果和叶片区域分析的平均年温度和降水量的估计，以及对古代土壤的研究。这项研究还将重建目前存在的古代生物群落，以及使用哺乳动物牙齿稳定的碳同位素以及使用沉积学存在的沉积环境的类型。这些各种代理记录将与测试对哺乳动物的动物记录与气候变化或古代早期生物群落变化之间的相关性进行比较。这项研究的结果对于开发更准确的模型来预测气候变化的后果应该很有用。 该项目将为高中，本科生和研究生提供教育和研究机会，其中包括来自新墨西哥州的美国原住民学生，这些学生在科学中的人数大大不足，而内布拉斯加州的6 - 8年级学生则“处于危险之中”。这项研究的结果还将被纳入新墨西哥州自然历史与科学博物馆的永久博物馆展览中。