| NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | March 14, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | March 14, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1754483 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Christopher Schneider
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2020 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $103,084.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $103,084.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
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| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1400 S LAKE SHORE DR CHICAGO IL US 60605-2827 (312)665-7240 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1400 S Lake Shore Drive Chicago IL US 60605-2827 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
PHYLOGENETIC SYSTEMATICS, Sedimentary Geo & Paleobiology |
| Primary Program Source: |
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| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
The Late Cretaceous, from 100 million to 65 million years ago, was a time of great change for the freshwater fishes of North America. Many older groups of fishes were going extinct and being replaced by modern groups. But where did the modern groups come from, and how and why did they replace the older groups? These questions, among others, are unanswered because the fossil record of fishes from this time period is extremely poor. This project analyzes newly discovered, complete fossilized skeletons of freshwater fish from a critical time period (72-66 million years ago). These fossils are extraordinarily well-preserved, providing a rare glimpse of complete skeletons. This project will fill a critical gap in understanding the origin and evolution of modern freshwater fish. In addition to the scientific merit of this project, there are several broader impacts. First, the fossils to be described are deposited in publicly accessible natural history collections, thereby ensuring that they are available in perpetuity to the scientific community. Second, student training programs developed around the preparation and analysis of the fossils provides valuable research and training for budding scientists. Third, results from this study will be published in scientific articles and presented at professional meetings and seminars for public audiences. And finally, by using the resources available at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the project will increase public understanding of science. All specimens will be prepared in a lab where active preparation and study of the specimens can be observed by the more than 1.2 million annual visitors to the Field Museum, including many K-12 student groups and teachers, and a temporary exhibit of this exquisitely preserved fossil fish fauna will add an important component to current exhibits at the Field Museum.
Although the modern freshwater fish fauna of North America has been intensively studied, its origin, biogeography, and evolutionary history are still poorly understood, due in part to a lack of whole-body fossils from Cretaceous freshwater deposits, particularly those containing articulated skeletons. This study uses exceptionally well-preserved fossil fish from a recently discovered lagerstatten in the Maastrichtian Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota, to illuminate the transition between the early Mesozoic (consisting of extinct orders and families) and the modern freshwater fauna. Recently discovered blocks containing the articulated, complete skeletons of many freshwater fish have been acquired by the Field Museum for preparation and analysis. All fossils will be described and illustrated using a combination of detailed photographic documentation of all aspects of the anatomy of the species with matched line drawings clearly showing the interpretation of the morphology. These data will form the basis of original morphological descriptions, character conceptualization, and phylogenetic and comparative analyses of key fish lineages present in the blocks, including the Acipenseridae, Polyodontidae, Amiidae, Lepisosteidae, and possibly Teleostei.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Cretaceous (approximately 145 to 65 million years ago) was a time of great evolutionary transition on this planet. The end of this time period came to a violent end with the impact of a giant asteroid off the Yucatan coast, leading to the extinction of many major groups of animals including, most famously, non-avian dinosaurs. The end of the Cretaceous brought not only a great transition of land vertebrates from dinosaurs to mammals, it also brought about a great transition of the North American freshwater fish fauna. The pre-Cretaceous, freshwater fauna is remarkably different from the post-Cretaceous one. The 80 million year fossil record of freshwater, North American fishes during the Cretaceous period has been extremely poor[GL1] up to now, consisting mostly of fragmentary remains such as isolated teeth, vertebrae and scales. Several years ago a freshwater fish locality was discovered in North Dakota from the very end of the Cretaceous that contained a mass mortality of complete fish skeletons. They collectively represents a community of fishes that were buried alive and intact, providing the best example of a freshwater fish community from this time period that has been discovered to date. The material is dateable precisely to the end of the Cretaceous, because the rock surrounding the fossils contains micro-tektites from the asteroid impact site. The impact of the 50-foot wide asteroid was so large that the micro-tektites from the explosion circled the planet for years after the impact. Finding their presence in the rock allows relatively precise dating of the material. The well preserved skeletons provide us with an important window into a period of North American fish evolution that has long been a mystery.
The NSF grant to the Field Museum (award #1754483) was used to fund preparation of the fossil fishes out of the rock matrix. This work was painstakingly done with needle-like tools under binocular microscope magnification. After two years of preparation, several large complete skeletons ranging in size from two to four feet in length plus a number of complete skulls have been removed and prepared for study. The fish species so far includes two species of sturgeon and one species of paddlefish. We (co-PI Eric Hilton and I) are in the process of describing these animals now for a scientific journal. These fishes will shed important light on the early evolution of two major fish families; the sturgeons (Acipenseridae) and the paddlefishes (Polyodontidae).
This study will be incorporated into the researchers? student training programs. The results of this study will be published in scientific articles, presented at professional meetings, and will be presented in seminars for public audiences highlighting this research and the importance of systematic biology generally. All preparation of the fossils at the Field Museum was done in a lab on the exhibit floor with glass walls so the process could be observed by the more than 1.2 million annual visitors to the museum. Some of this material will eventually be incorporated into exhibits in the public part of the museum once Hilton and I have finished with our scientific publications on them. All of the fossils will also be housed in the Field Museum collection in perpetuity, where they will be available to the scientific community for study in the future.
Last Modified: 07/01/2020
Modified by: Lance Grande
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