EAPSI: Assessing Paleoclimate Using Ice Age Amphibian and Reptile Communities from Southern Chinese Caves

Darcy Hannah E, Johnson City TN

Investigators

Abstract

The project will investigate fossil remains of frogs, salamanders, and reptiles from caves in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Research will be conducted in collaboration with cave expert Dr. Changzhu Jin and paleoherpetologist Dr. Yuan Wang at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, China. IVPP will provide access to previously-collected cave sediments, including some fossils available for immediate examination and additional fossils to be produced by sediment processing at IVPP during the course of the investigation. These sediments record multiple ice ages as well as the intervening warmer periods. Because amphibians and reptiles have specific temperature and moisture requirements, understanding what animals lived in southern China during these extreme climatic events will aid in reconstructing paleoclimate. Predictions of future climate change utilize paleoclimatic data to generate more robust models to inform mitigation policies for water resource availability and agricultural practices. The project will investigate fossil herpetofauna from Pleistocene deposits in caves from Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. Previously collected sediment will be available at IVPP. Some fossils will have already been recovered, and work will begin immediately to identify the remains. Further work will require wet-sieving and screening of sediment, allowing intermittent drying to fully breakdown clays. Recovered bones will be sorted under a microscope according to taxon. Preliminary identifications of all fossil will be made in Beijing; identifications will be confirmed utilizing the modern comparative collection at East Tennessee State University. Environmental requirements of modern taxa will be used to approximate Pleistocene climate in the region. Amphibians are more sensitive to climate change than reptiles, and their range changes can be used to predict the severity of future climate change. Understanding their response to the dramatic changes of the Pleistocene will allow for more robust prediction models. This NSF EAPSI award supports research by a U.S. graduate student and is funded in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology.