In paleobiology, it is critical to evaluate whether environmental change or true biological change drive the observed faunal patterns (Holland, 2000). The purpose of this research is to examine reef recovery, approximately 14 million years after the end-Permian mass extinction, within a stratigraphic paleobiological approach. Most post-extinction research focuses on the interval after mass extinction: the survival phase. However, effects extend beyond survival.  Research indicates that most mass extinction survivors go extinct before they get a chance to recover (Jablonski, 2002). Instead, new species develop and continue to establish the recovered population. Despite these results, few studies examine recovery intervals. The recovery interval after the end-Permian mass extinction is particularly interesting because this mass extinction severely affected reef communities. Reef builders present before the extinction became extinct and disappeared for 5 million years. When reefs finally appear, new, more modern, reef builders emerge in the Middle Triassic, ~ 245 million years ago. Researchers describe Triassic reef recovery as an ecological succession starting with the Early Triassic microbial reefs followed by two reef optimums: 1) the stabilization and colonization stage within Middle Triassic; and 2) the diversification and domination stage within the Late Triassic (Flügel, 1982, 2002). As a result, reef communities become significantly more massive, diverse, and more widely distributed geographically throughout the Triassic. We plan to conduct a paleoecological study to examine faunal changes within a well-constrained environmental context. The objective of this study is to: 1) record rock characteristics to determine the depositional environment and document sea-level changes; 2) collect and count fossils to record the type and quantity of organisms; 3) document δ13C values to identify any climatic changes; and 4) present a survey of the Triassic reef stabilization and colonization stages from North America. 

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Students will gain value experiences in field mapping, sequence stratigraphy, invertebrate paleontology, paleoecological concepts, multivariate statistics, microfacies analysis, and geochemical analysis.

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