9414058 Skog Travel costs and per diem are provided to enable the PI to visit Nanjing China where she will examine fossil fern material and interact with Dr. Sun Ge of the Paleontological Institute in Nanjing with whom she has recently discussed collaboration. Dr. Skog is an established paleobotanist whose application of modern technologies to the study of fossil fern material in this country has helped to elucideate relationships of these ancient land plants and revealed information about their distributions and the paleoclimate conditions under which they evolved. She seeks to broaden that knowledge of extinct fern relationships to extant taxa by investigating material from fossil beds in China. Her Chinese collaborator has excellent complementary training in Geology, so stratigraphic details or potential problems will be well covered in this collaboration from which both scientists/countries serve to benefit. It is especially important that such collaborations be encouraged because of the long term political situation which, until very recently, precluded any intellectual exchange and would not permit the loan of specimens for scientific study. Every such collaboration that serves to foster good working relationships and trust is of great value to the Chinese scientists who will learn western methodologies/technologies and to U.S. scientists who will have access to material which allows systematic analyses that previously could not incorporate material from China.
