The evolution of human innovation in an arid biodiversity hotspot

干旱生物多样性热点地区人类创新的演变

• 批准号: DP230100577
• 负责人: Prof Alexander Mackay
• 金额: $ 38.25万
• 依托单位: University of Wollongong
• 依托单位国家: 澳大利亚
• 项目类别: Discovery Projects
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 澳大利亚
• 起止时间: 2023-01-01 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://dataportal.arc.gov.au/RGS/Web/Grants/DP230100577
• 关键词: evolution; human; innovation; arid; biodiversity

This project will examine the archaeology and environmental history of South Africa’s Succulent Karoo, the world’s only arid biodiversity hotspot. Arid regions of Africa have historically been marginalised in accounts of human evolution yet recent evidence suggests that they were loci of innovation over the last 120 000 years. To explore the importance of such areas to the evolution of our adaptive capabilities, this project will produce comprehensive new datasets relating to the climatic, environmental, and social contexts of innovation among early humans occupying the site of Varsche Rivier 003. The results will test prevailing models of human behavioural evolution, shedding new light on how we came to be human.

该项目将研究南非肉质卡鲁的档案和环境历史，这是世界唯一的干旱生物多样性热点。历史上，非洲的干旱地区在人类进化的叙述中被边缘化，但最近的证据表明，在过去的1,20 000年中，它们是创新的本地化。为了探索此类领域对我们自适应能力的发展的重要性，该项目将产生与早期人类创新的气候，环境和社会环境有关的全面新数据集，占领了Varsche Rivier 003的现场。结果将测试人类行为进化模型，对人类的新光线进行测试。