Award Abstract # 0819953
The Horned Dinosaur Radiation

NSF Org: EAR
Division Of Earth Sciences
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF UTAH
Initial Amendment Date: June 25, 2008
Latest Amendment Date: September 21, 2009
Award Number: 0819953
Award Instrument: Continuing Grant
Program Manager: Yusheng Liu
EAR
 Division Of Earth Sciences
GEO
 Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date: July 1, 2008
End Date: June 30, 2013 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount: $149,998.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date: $149,998.00
Funds Obligated to Date: FY 2008 = $64,999.00
FY 2009 = $84,999.00
History of Investigator:
  • Scott Sampson (Principal Investigator)
    ssampson@umnh.utah.edu
  • Catherine Forster (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Mark Loewen (Co-Principal Investigator)
  • Andrew Farke (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of Utah
201 PRESIDENTS CIR
SALT LAKE CITY
UT  US  84112-9049
(801)581-6903
Sponsor Congressional District: 01
Primary Place of Performance: University of Utah
201 PRESIDENTS CIR
SALT LAKE CITY
UT  US  84112-9049
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
01
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): LL8GLEVH6MG3
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Sedimentary Geo & Paleobiology
Primary Program Source: 01000809DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
01000910DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 0000, OTHR
Program Element Code(s): 745900
Award Agency Code: 4900
Fund Agency Code: 4900
Assistance Listing Number(s): 47.050

ABSTRACT

THE HORNED DINOSAUR RADIATION

PI: Scott D. Sampson
Co-PIs: Andrew A. Farke, Catherine A. Forster, and Mark A. Loewen

The Late Cretaceous was a period of elevated sea levels and hothouse climates. Shallow seas flooded many continental landmasses, including North America. For about 35 million years, the Late Cretaceous Interior Seaway extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico, effectively dividing the North American continent into two landmasses. On the western landmass, sandwiched between the seaway to the east and rising mountains to the west, dinosaurs underwent dramatic diversification, achieving perhaps the acme of their evolutionary history. One of the most successful groups of these ?West American? dinosaurs was the ceratopsids, giant (4-8 m long; ~1-4 ton), rhinoceros-like horned dinosaurs that included Triceratops.
Ceratopsids rank amongst the most remarkable animals known. The largest examples possessed skulls about 3 m long, exceeding that of all other land-dwelling vertebrates (back-boned animals) before or since. Their skulls were not only big, but bizarre, with toothless beaks, greatly enlarged nose regions, and a broad array of signature ornaments that included horns over the nose and eyes, together with a variety of elaborate hooks, spikes, and scallops along the frill margin. This project will investigate the evolutionary radiation of ceratopsid dinosaurs, building on abundant recent discoveries that, over the past five years alone, have more than doubled the number of recognized species. The approach will be multi-pronged, assessing and integrating five key components: 1) taxonomy?evaluating and classifying species diversity; 2) phylogeny?assessing the historical relationships of species; 3) stratigraphy?determining how species were arrayed through time; 4) biogeography?evaluating how species were arrayed through space within the Western Interior; and 5) paleoenvironment?looking for associations between species and ancient environments.
A cornerstone of the project will be the first comprehensive, species level assessment of historical relationships within Ceratopsidae, predicated on a thorough taxonomic reassessment of the group. The results of this analysis will then be integrated with stratigraphic, paleoenvironmental, and biogeographic datasets in order to test a pair of general hypotheses pertaining to the mode and tempo of evolution. The first hypothesis is that, for most of their duration, ceratopsids were sub-divided into at least two semi-isolated geographic regions?one in the north (including Alberta, Montana, and Alaska) and another in the south (including Utah Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico). That is, on the basis of preliminary evidence, it appears that ceratopsid species evolved relatively independently in the northern and southern regions of the Western Interior. The second hypothesis is that the evolutionary radiation of ceratopsids was characterized by relatively rapid species turnover tied to cyclical rise and fall of the Western Interior Seaway. In short, periodic expansion (transgression) of the seaway reduced the amount of available habitat for ceratopsids and other terrestrial animals, perhaps triggering bouts of extinction and speciation. The significance of this project resides in its great potential to elucidate the tempo and mode of evolution within a single, well sampled group of dinosaurs that diversified on a small landmass over a relatively brief geologic time span (~15 million years). Ultimately, the results will comprise the most comprehensive assessment to date of evolutionary radiation within any dinosaur group.
Broader impacts will encompass career training for undergraduate and graduate students, including women and minorities, as well as critical elucidation of dinosaur evolution immediately prior to the K-T boundary. In addition, project results will be disseminated to both the scientific community and the general public through a variety of outlets, including original publication, media exposure, the internet, museum displays, and lectures/seminars. Outreach highlights include the most comprehensive treatment of horned dinosaurs on permanent exhibition anywhere in the world, planned for the new, $100 million Utah Museum of Natural History facility in Salt Lake City.

PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 13)
Andrew A. Farke "Anatomy and taxonomic status of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid Nedoceratops hatcheri from the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A." PLoS ONE , v.6 , 2011 , p.e16196 10.1371/journal.pone.0016196
Farke, AA "EVOLUTION, HOMOLOGY, AND FUNCTION OF THE SUPRACRANIAL SINUSES IN CERATOPSIAN DINOSAURS" JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY , v.30 , 2010 , p.1486 View record at Web of Science 10.1080/02724634.2010.50143
Farke, A. A. "Anatomy and taxonomic status of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid Nedoceratops hatcheri from the Upper Cretaceous Lance Formation of Wyoming, U.S.A." U.S.A. PLoS ONE , v.6 , 2011 , p.e16196 doi:10.1371/
Farke, A. A. "Evolution, homology, and function of the supracranial sinuses in ceratopsian dinosaurs" Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology , v.30 , 2010 , p.1486
Farke, A. A., M. J. Ryan, P. M. Barrett, D. H. Tanke, D. R. Braman, M. A. Loewen, and M. R. Graham. "A new centrosaurine from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and the evolution of parietal ornamentation in horned dinosaurs." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica , v.56 , 2012 , p.691
Farke, A. A., M. J. Ryan, P. M. Barrett, D. H. Tanke, D. R. Braman, M. A. Loewen, and M. R. Graham. "A new centrosaurine from the Late Cretaceous of Alberta, Canada, and the evolution of parietal ornamentation in horned dinosaurs." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. , v.56 , 2011 doi:10.4202/app.2010.0121.
Farke, A. A., Sampson, S. D. Forster, C. A. and Loewen, M. A "Turanoceratops tardabilis?sister taxon, but not a ceratopsid" Naturwissenschaften , 2009 doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0543-8
Farke, A. A., Wolff, E. D. S. and Tanke, D. H. "Evidence of combat in Triceratops." PLoS ONE , v.4 , 2009 , p.e4252. doi:10.1371/journal.
Farke, A.; Wolff, E.; Tanke, D. "Evidence of combat in Triceratops." PLoS ONE , v.4 , 2009 10.1371/journal.pone.0004252
Maiorino, L., A. A. Farke, P. Piras, M. J. Ryan, K. M. Terris, and T. Kotsakis "The evolution of squamosal shape in ceratopsid dinosaurs (Dinosauria, Ornithischia)" Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology , v.33 , 2013 , p.1385
Sampson, S. D., Loewen, M. A., Farke, A, A., Roberts, E. M., Forster, C. A., Smith, J. A., Titus, A. L. "New Horned Dinosaurs from Utah Provide Evidence for Intracontinental Dinosaur Endemism" PLoS ONE , v.5 , 2010 10.1371/journal.pone.0012292
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 13)

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