Award Abstract #0446488 The Mahajanga Basin Project: Late Cretaceous Vertebrates from Madagascar and Their Implications for the Biogeographic History of Gondwana
H. Richard Lane
EAR Division of Earth Sciences
GEO Directorate for Geosciences
Start Date:
May 1, 2005
Expires:
April 30, 2009 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:
$342451
Investigator(s):
David Krause David.Krause@sunysb.edu (Principal Investigator)
Catherine Forster (Co-Principal Investigator) Gregory Buckley (Co-Principal Investigator) Raymond Rogers (Co-Principal Investigator) Patrick O'Connor (Co-Principal Investigator)
Scott Sampson (Former Co-Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:
SUNY at Stony Brook
WEST 5510 FRK MEL LIB
STONY BROOK, NY 11794 631/632-9949
NSF Program(s):
SEDIMENTARY GEO & PALEOBIOLOGY
Field Application(s):
0000099 Other Applications NEC
Program Reference Code(s):
OTHR, 0000
Program Element Code(s):
7459
ABSTRACT
The face of the Earth changed radically during the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous. It is during this interval that the southern supercontinent Gondwana fragmented into isolated landmasses, with dramatic consequences for the associated terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate (backboned) animals. Reconstructions of the timing and sequence of this fragmentation are based almost entirely on geophysical evidence and remain poorly tested on the basis of terrestrial and freshwater vertebrate fossils. This proposal seeks to continue and expand a project designed to discover vertebrate fossils in Upper Cretaceous strata (approximately 65 million years old) of the Mahajanga Basin in northwestern Madagascar, to place them in phylogenetic, stratigraphic, and sedimentologic context, and to employ them in testing biogeographic and plate tectonic hypotheses relating to Gondwana as a whole and Madagascar in particular. The Mahajanga Basin Project was initiated over a decade ago but is only beginning to reach its potential. To date, PIs have quintupled the previously known species diversity of Late Cretaceous vertebrates from the island and have discovered some of the most complete and spectacularly preserved specimens of Late Cretaceous vertebrates from the southern hemisphere and, indeed, the world.
But sampling is clearly incomplete and much remains to be done in the vast expanses of paleontologically and geologically unexplored Cretaceous rocks of the Mahajanga Basin. With continued work, PIs are confident that the vertebrate fauna from the Cretaceous of the Mahajanga Basin will become one of the best sampled and best known faunas of Cretaceous age from the southern hemisphere and one of the primary standards against which other Gondwanan faunas of Cretaceous age are compared. The discovery and rigorous phylogenetic analysis of additional and more complete vertebrate fossils from Upper Cretaceous horizons in the Mahajanga Basin of northwestern Madagascar, and their placement in geological context, will: 1) shed significant new light on the diversity and evolutionary history of vertebrates from the southern supercontinent of Gondwana in general and Madagascar in particular, and 2) permit tests of competing hypotheses about the physical and biotic connections of the component parts of Gondwana during the Mesozoic and serve to elucidate the biogeographic origins of the highly endemic extant vertebrate fauna of Madagascar, arguably one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of natural history.
As in the past, this project is firmly committed to providing a training ground for both Malagasy graduate students and for American high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, as well as postdoctoral associates. Also as in the past, results of this project will be disseminated to both the scientific community and the general public in a variety of ways including original publication, media exposure, the internet, museum displays, and lectures/seminars. PIs will also continue their efforts to build schools and provide healthcare for children living in remote areas of Madagascar through an organization, the Madagascar Ankizy Fund (www.ankizy.org), that they established in 1998.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH Next
(Showing: 1 - 20 of 31).
Alicea, J., and A. Farke.
"Can cross-sectional properties of the femur be used to infer posture in non-avian theropods,"
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
v.27,
2007,
p. 40A.
Carrano, M. T..
"The appendicular skeleton of Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Theropoda: Abelisauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar,"
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir,
v.8,
2007,
p. 163.
Carrano, M. T., and P. M. O'Connor..
"Bird's-eye view,"
Natural History,
v.114,
2005,
p. 42.
Carrano, M. T., and S. D. Sampson.
"The phylogeny of Ceratosauria (Dinosauria: Theropoda),"
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology,
2007,
p. 1.
Curry Rogers, K. A..
"The postcranial anatomy of Rapetosaurus krausei (Sauropoda: Titanosauria), with comments on life history strategy,"
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
v.25 (S3),
2005,
p. 48A.
Curry Rogers, K. A., J. Hertel, and J. Groenke.
"Three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull of Rapetosaurus krausei (Sauropoda: Titanosauria),"
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
v.26,
2006,
p. 53A.
Curry Rogers, K., and M. Imker.
"New data on 'Malagasy Taxon B,' a titanosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar,"
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
v.27,
2007,
p. 64A.
Evans, S. E.; Jones, M. E. H.; Krause, D. W..
"A giant frog with South American affinities from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar.,"
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
v.105,
2008,
p. 2951.
Farke, A. A.; O'Connor, P. M..
"Pathology in Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Theropoda: Abelisauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar,"
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir,
v.8,
2007,
p. 180.
Gottfried, M. D..
"Freshwater fishes from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar and the origin of the extant Malagasy ichthyofauna,"
In P. M. Barrett and S. E. Evans (eds.), Ninth International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota. Natural History Museum, London.,
2006,
p. 163.
Krause, D. W..
"Madagascar's dinosaurs,"
National Science Museum, Friends of the Museum magazine,
v.2005-3,
2005,
p. 3.
Krause, D. W..
"Science with a social conscience: digging for dinosaurs and helping children in the land that time forgot,"
Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
v.93,
2006,
p. 367.
Krause, D. W. and A. H. Rasoamiaramanana.
"Late Cretaceous vertebrates of Madagascar: implications for the biogeographical and plate tectonic history of Gondwana,"
In P. M. Barrett and S. E. Evans (eds.), Ninth International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota. Natural History Museum, London.,
2006,
p. 163.
Krause, D. W., and A. H. Rasoamiaramanana.
"Late Cretaceous vertebrates of Madagascar: implications for the biogeographic and plate tectonic history of Gondwana,"
In P. M. Barrett and S. E. Evans (eds.), Ninth International Symposium on Mesozoic Terrestrial Ecosystems and Biota. Natural History Museum, London.,
2006,
p. 59.
Krause, D. W., P. M. O'Connor, A. H. Rasomiaramanana G. A. Buckley, D. Burney, M. T. Carrano, P. S. Chatrath, J. J. Flynn, C. A. Forster, L. Godfrey, W. L. Jungers, R. R. Rogers, K. E. Samonds, E. Simons, and A. Wyss.
"Preserving Madagascar's natural heritage: the importance of keeping the island's vertebrate fossils in the public domain,"
Madagascar Conservation & Development,
v.1,
2006,
p. 43.
Krause, D. W., P. M. O'Connor, K. Curry Rogers, S. D. Sampson, G. A. Buckley, and R. R. Rogers..
"Late Cretaceous terrestrial vertebrates from Madagascar: implications for Latin American biogeography,"
In Latin American Biogeography ? Causes and Effects. 51st Annual Systematics Symposium, Missouri Botanical Garden, Latin American Biogeography ? Causes and Effects. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden,
v.93,
2006,
p. 178.
Krause, DW; Sampson, SD; Carrano, MT; O'Connor, PM.
"Overview of the history of discovery, taxonomy, phylogeny, and biogeography of Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Theropoda : Abelisauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar,"
JOURNAL OF VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY,
v.27,
2007,
p. 1
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O'Connor, P. M..
"Postcranial pneumaticity: an evaluation of soft-tissue influences on the postcranial skeleton and the reconstruction of pulmonary anatomy in archosaurs,"
Journal of Morpology,
v.267,
2006,
p. 1199.
O'Connor, P. M..
"The postcranial axial skeleton of Majungasaurus crenatissimus (Theropoda: Abelisauridae) from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar,"
Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir,
v.8,
2007,
p. 127.
O'Connor, P. M., and L. P. A. M. Claessens..
"Basic avian pulmonary design and flow-through ventilation in non-avian theropod dinosaurs,"
Nature,
v.436,
2005,
p. 253.
