ELT: Collaborative Research: Stratigraphic refinement, systematic and biogeographic relationships of the late Cretaceous-Paleocene Deccan biota of India

ELT：合作研究：印度晚白垩世-古新世德干生物群的地层细化、系统和生物地理学关系

• 批准号: 1338295
• 负责人: Selena Smith
• 金额: $ 12.33万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-03-01 至 2019-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1338295&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: ELT; Collaborative; Research; Stratigraphic; refinement

This is a project to conduct detailed studies of anatomically preserved fossil plants from deposits in India that were growing at a time when the Indian subcontinent was about to collide with southern Asia. The focus of the research is on the floristic changes that occurred as a result of that continental collision, and the global biological catastrophe that it is hypothesized to have caused. The Intertrappean beds developed during intervals between major plateau basalt eruptions of the late Cretaceous-early Paleocene are famous for their fossil content, including remains of terrestrial mammals, dinosaurs, mammals, molluscs and abundant fossil plants. Fossils that are the focus of this study are among the most extensive and well preserved in the paleontological record. Detailed knowledge of the fossil plants preserved in those beds, and the floristic turnover from the Late Cretaceous through the basal Paleogene will provide a benchmark for understanding the relationship between climatic and floristic change.Because this study will focus on climate-change driven changes in regional and global floristics, it has great potential to provide insights about vegetational changes that are likely to result from the global climate change that is beginning at this time. Obviously, these insights will help predict the types of global vegetational changes that we may expect to see in the near future, and help inform decisions about how to manage such changes through the selective allocation of resources. The disciplines thatare represented by the PI team, and the approach that has been proposed is comprehensive and potentially transformative with respect to the vital insights that will result from characterization of floristic changes through this crucial period in the history of the earth. The combined use of broad-based plant systematics, coupled with detailed studies of flowers, fruits, and wood to address these importantquestions is a most ambitions and creative approach that has not previously been attempted.

该项目旨在对印度沉积物中保存的植物化石进行详细研究，这些化石是在印度次大陆即将与南亚碰撞时生长的。研究的重点是大陆碰撞造成的植物区系变化，以及推测由此造成的全球生物灾难。白垩纪晚期至古新世早期高原玄武岩喷发期间形成的特拉普间地层以其化石含量而闻名，其中包括陆地哺乳动物、恐龙、哺乳动物、软体动物和丰富的植物化石遗迹。本次研究的重点化石是古生物学记录中分布最广泛、保存最完好的化石之一。对这些床中保存的化石植物以及从白垩纪晚期到古近纪基底的植物区系更替的详细了解将为理解气候和植物区系变化之间的关系提供基准。因为这项研究将重点关注气候变化驱动的区域变化和全球植物区系，它具有巨大的潜力，可以提供有关植被变化的见解，这些变化可能是由此时开始的全球气候变化引起的。显然，这些见解将有助于预测我们在不久的将来可能会看到的全球植被变化类型，并有助于为如何通过有选择的资源分配来管理这些变化的决策提供信息。 PI 团队所代表的学科以及所提出的方法是全面的，并且对于从地球历史上这一关键时期的植物区系变化特征描述中产生的重要见解而言，具有潜在的变革性。结合使用广泛的植物系统学，再加上对花卉、水果和木材的详细研究来解决这些重要问题，是一种前所未有的雄心勃勃和创造性的方法。