Hominin footprints, fossils, and their context in the early Pleistocene of Koobi Fora, Kenya

肯尼亚库比福拉更新世早期的古人类足迹、化石及其背景

• 批准号: 1744150
• 负责人: David Braun
• 金额: $ 10.07万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-01-01 至 2018-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1744150&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Hominin; footprints; fossils; their; context

The main goals of this paleoanthropology field and lab project, awarded to Brian Richmond and colleagues, are to 1) recover more of a newly-discovered associated fossil human skeleton possibly belonging to the extinct species Paranthropus boisei, and perform detailed analyses of the fossil anatomy to improve our understanding of the evolution of the human upper limb and hand; 2) excavate, document, and analyze multiple layers of fossil human footprints at sites in Kenya; 3) conduct surveys and excavations to find new footprint layers in targeted areas and to document the paleo-environmental and archeological contexts of the sites. Fossil human skeletons and footprints are among the rarest and most informative discoveries relating to human evolution. Recent research has unearthed both, along with stone tools and fossilized butchered bones, at a site complex (FwJj14) dating to 1.51-1.53 million years ago near Ileret, Kenya. The research team also discovered fossilized footprint layers, ranging in age from 1.4-1.5 million years ago, near site GaJi10 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. This award funds fieldwork to recover more of the fossil human skeleton and footprints, and data on their ancient ecological setting. These discoveries offer a unique opportunity to test long-standing hypotheses, ask novel questions, and dramatically improve our understanding of the evolution of human upper limb and hand anatomy, walking gait, ancient human behavior, and the environmental contexts of several extinct human species living in the Lake Turkana area 1.5 million years ago, a critical time in human evolutionary history.This project offers a number of measurable broader impacts for the scientific community by fostering interdisciplinary and international collaboration, improving minority representation in paleoanthropology in the US and improving training of African scholars.. The researchers will make data from this project, including 3D maps of footprints available to the National Museum of Kenya (NMK) for curation, and to other scholars directly and via online-accessible databases (e.g., fossil animal data in the Turkana Database, and 3D digital footprint surfaces on the Human Origins Program website at the Smithsonian's NMNH). Many fossil footprint surfaces are fragile and subject to rapid erosion; our project will document and, when appropriate, collect and preserve at the NMK these irreplaceable resources. This project will strengthen international (US-Kenya-South Africa) and, within the US, inter-institutional (GW-JHU-Smithsonian-Rutgers) collaborations. Furthermore, this project takes very seriously its commitment to train US students from groups underrepresented (e.g., African-American, Hispanic) in paleoanthropology, as well as graduate students from Kenya and South Africa.

授予Brian Richmond及其同事授予的这个古人类学领域和实验室项目的主要目标是1）恢复更多新发现的相关化石人类骨架，可能属于Boisei濒临灭绝的物种Boisei，并进行化石解剖学的详细分析，以改善我们对人类高度和手的进化的了解； 2）在肯尼亚地点进行挖掘，记录和分析化石人足迹的多层； 3）进行调查和发掘以在目标区域找到新的足迹层，并记录地点的古环境和考古背景。 化石人类的骨骼和足迹是与人类进化有关的最稀有，最有用的发现之一。最近的研究在肯尼亚Ileret附近的现场建筑群（FWJJ14）上发掘了一部分（FWJJ14）的石材工具和化石化的屠宰骨骼。 研究小组还发现了化石足迹层，年龄在1.4-150万年前，靠近肯尼亚Koobi Fora的Site Gaji10。 该奖项为现场工作提供了资金，以收回更多的化石人体骨骼和足迹，以及有关其古老生态环境的数据。 这些发现提供了一个独特的机会来检验长期存在的假设，提出新的问题，并极大地提高了我们对人类上肢和手动解剖学的演变的理解，步行步态，古老的人类行为，古老的人类行为以及生活在图尔卡纳湖地区的几种灭绝人类物种的环境环境1500万年前，这是人类进化历史上的关键时期。 collaboration, improving minority representation in paleoanthropology in the US and improving training of African scholars.. The researchers will make data from this project, including 3D maps of footprints available to the National Museum of Kenya (NMK) for curation, and to other scholars directly and via online-accessible databases (e.g., fossil animal data in the Turkana Database, and 3D digital footprint surfaces on the Human Origins计划网站在史密森尼的NMNH）。 许多化石足迹表面脆弱，并且会受到快速侵蚀。我们的项目将记录，并在适当的情况下收集和保存这些不可替代的资源。 该项目将加强国际（US-Kenya-South非洲），在美国境内，机构间（GW-JHU-SMITHSONIAN-RUTGERS）合作。 此外，该项目非常认真地致力于从人类学中培训人类学不足的团体（例如非裔美国人，西班牙裔）的学生，以及来自肯尼亚和南非的研究生。