Collaborative Research: Filling in a temporal gap in hominin evolution

合作研究：填补古人类进化的时间空白

• 批准号: 1460502
• 负责人: David Braun
• 金额: $ 5.31万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-15 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1460502&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Filling; temporal; gap

The Ledi-Geraru Research Project (LRGP) promotes the science of human origins by exploring a region in the Afar of Ethiopia, which contains rare fossiliferous sediments ranging in time from 3.0-2.4 million years ago. The evidence for both behavioral and biological evolution in the hominin lineage is limited during this time period. However, these sediments contain some of the earliest archaeological sites in the world, as well as fossils of human ancestors. New archeological and paleontological data will be collected that provide a better understanding of hominin behavioral evolution, the extinction of Australopithecus afarensis, the origin of material culture in the form of stone tool technology, and the biogeography of ancient mammal species. The investigators will examine the various factors that are driving evolution, such as climate change, to understand the conditions under which biological and behavioral changes occurred in human evolutionary history. The project will engage both K-12 students and the public at large; the immediate field findings will be delivered in a real-time atmosphere through interactive blogs from the field in which each scientist interacts with students from U.S. classrooms. The project is also instrumental in training students from both the U.S. and Ethiopia in a STEM science. During this three-year project, the investigators will collect archaeological, paleontological, and paleoenvironmental data to address behavioral and biological evolution in the hominin lineage in the time period from 2.95-2.5 Ma. In the lower Awash valley of Ethiopia, the last appearance date of A. afarensis at ~2.95 Ma (Hadar), followed by the appearance of stone tools at ~2.58 Ma (Gona) and Homo cf. H. habilis (Hadar) at ~2.35 Ma, have been described as a drastic niche shift for the hominin lineage. This project is examining strata from a period heretofore undocumented in the lower Awash valley. Archaeological excavations are being expanded in locations where artifacts have been previously recovered. Past habitats in which hominins existed will be reconstructed with multiple methods including mammal community structure, utilizing mesowear and stable isotopes for mammalian diets, ecomorphology to retrodict mammal locomotor patterns, and analyses of botanical remains. Data recovered will be compared to hominin, faunal, and botanical information from localities near the LGRP that encompass time before and after this interval to develop a regional, representation of the paleoenvironment and species turnover across time and space. Subsequently, these data will be compared to sites beyond the lower Awash region to better understand East African evolutionary and biogeographical patterns.

Ledi-Geraru 研究项目 (LRGP) 通过探索埃塞俄比亚阿法尔的一个地区来促进人类起源科学，该地区含有 3 至 240 万年前的稀有化石沉积物。在这一时期，古人类谱系的行为和生物进化的证据都很有限。然而，这些沉积物中含有一些世界上最早的考古遗址，以及人类祖先的化石。将收集新的考古和古生物学数据，以便更好地了解人类行为进化、南方古猿阿法种的灭绝、石器技术形式的物质文化的起源以及古代哺乳动物物种的生物地理学。研究人员将研究推动进化的各种因素，例如气候变化，以了解人类进化史上生物和行为变化发生的条件。该项目将吸引 K-12 学生和广大公众的参与；直接的现场调查结果将通过该领域的互动博客在实时氛围中发布，每位科学家在其中与来自美国课堂的学生互动。该项目还有助于对美国和埃塞俄比亚的学生进行 STEM 科学培训。在这个为期三年的项目中，研究人员将收集考古、古生物学和古环境数据，以解决 2.95-2.5 Ma 时期古人类谱系的行为和生物进化问题。在埃塞俄比亚的阿瓦什河谷下游，阿法种的最后出现日期为约 2.95 Ma（哈达尔），随后石器的出现时间为约 2.58 Ma（戈纳）和人属 cf. H. habilis (Hadar) 的时间约为 2.35 Ma，被描述为古人类谱系的剧烈生态位转变。该项目正在检查阿瓦什河谷下游一段时期的地层，该时期尚未有记录。在以前发现过文物的地方，考古发掘工作正在扩大。人类过去存在的栖息地将通过多种方法重建，包括哺乳动物群落结构、利用哺乳动物饮食的介观磨损和稳定同位素、利用生态形态学来追溯哺乳动物的运动模式以及对植物遗骸的分析。恢复的数据将与 LGRP 附近地区的古人类、动物和植物信息（涵盖该间隔之前和之后的时间）进行比较，以形成跨时间和空间的古环境和物种更替的区域代表性。随后，这些数据将与阿瓦什下游地区以外的地点进行比较，以更好地了解东非的进化和生物地理模式。