Collaborative Research: Understanding the Evolution of High-latitude Permo-Triassic Paleoenvironments and their Vertebrate Communities.

Around 252 million years ago, a major mass extinction wiped out upwards of 90% of species on Earth. Coincident with this extinction, the Antarctic portion of the supercontinent of Pangea transitioned to a warmer climatic regime and became devoid of glaciers. Little is known about the survivors of the extinction in Antarctica, although it has been hypothesized that the continent?s more polar location shielded it from the worst of the extinction?s effects. The Shackleton Glacier region is the best place to study this extinction in Antarctica because it exposes the correct age rocks in abundance and relevant fossils were found there in the 1960s and 1980s. For this research, paleontologists will study fossil vertebrates that span from about 260?240 million years ago to understand how life evolved at high latitudes in the face of massive climate change. In addition, geologists will use fossil soils and fossil plant matter to more precisely understand the climate of Antarctica across this extinction boundary. These data will allow for a more complete understanding of ancient climates and how Antarctic life compared to that at lower latitudes. Undergraduate and graduate students will be actively involved in this research. Public engagement in Antarctic science will be accomplished at several natural history museums.

This three-year project will examine the evolution of Permo-Triassic paleoenvironments and their vertebrate communities by conducting fieldwork in the Shackleton Glacier region of Antarctica. The team will characterize the Permo-Triassic boundary within Shackleton area strata and correlate it to other stratigraphic successions in the region (e.g. via stable carbon isotope stratigraphy of fossilized plant organic matter). The researchers will use multiple types of data to assess the paleoenvironment, including: 1) paleosol morphology; 2) paleosol geochemistry; 3) pedogenic organic matter; and 4) fossil wood chronology and stable isotopes. The Fremouw Formation of Antarctica preserves the highest paleolatitude (~70° S) tetrapod fauna of the entire Triassic and thus has the potential to shed important light on the evolution of polar life during the early Mesozoic. The biology of Triassic vertebrates from Antarctica will be compared to conspecifics from lower paleolatitudes through analysis of growth in bone and tusk histology. An interdisciplinary approach will be used to address relationships between environmental change, faunal composition, and biogeographic patterns in the context of the high-latitude strata preserved in the Buckley and Fremouw formations in the Shackleton Glacier region.