This Small Grant for Exploratory Research to the Smithsonian Tropical Ressearch Institute (STRI) will provide for a rapid response team consisting of U.S. and international paleontologists, geologists, and students to collect and conserve fossils and geological samples from the new outcrops of the Neogene sediments exposed along the Panama Canal as it undergoes widening over the next few years.
Panama, in particular, and the tropics in general, hold the greatest biodiversity of marine and terrestrial biota. STRI has been studying how this great diversity has formed and how it is maintained. Part of the answer to these questions relies on an examination of the fossil and geological record, because the production of biodiversity takes millions of years. However, the fossil record from the tropics is very difficult to obtain, because good rock outcrops are rare to non-existent. Most of the landscape is covered by vegetation, and the weathering is intense, which alters the composition of the rocks and destroys the fossils.
The expansion of the Canal provides a rare opportunity to access fresh rock outcrops covering a large range of geologic time. Examination of these fresh rock outcrops will give access to the geological record from before, during, and after the formation of the isthmus of Panama, with all its evolutionary, paleoclimatological, and tectonic implications.
For this project, time is of the essence. Fossils and rocks must be documented, mapped and collected as the excavation of the Canal moves forward. The team will be in the Canal work zone almost every day over the next few years. With this team in place, many unique fossils and geological samples will be preserved for future study that might otherwise be destroyed or covered back up by future excavations. This grant provides excellent international experience for U.S. graduate students by becoming members of the STRI's paleontological and geological research group. All sample metadata will be catalogued using the Paleostrat system.
