Collaborative Research: Paleoclimatic and Palenvironmental Characterization of Early Pleistocene Sites

合作研究：早更新世遗址的古气候和古环境特征

基本信息

批准号：
1851620
负责人：
HollyNoelle Ballard
金额：
$ 3.03万
依托单位：
Oklahoma State University Center for Health Sciences
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2019
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2019-03-15 至 2024-02-29
项目状态：
已结题

项目摘要

This research will investigate the impact of climate and environmental change on the migration of early human ancestors out of Africa and their adaptation to novel environments 1.8 million years ago. Previous scholarship on climate-human relationship focused on unique morphological and behavioral adaptations of early humans to hot, arid and open savanna habitats, and causally linked the dispersal of early humans with the development of savanna grasslands in Eurasia. However, evidence for an expansion of a savanna corridor at broad millennial temporal scales and/or at a global continental spatial scale is ambiguous and necessitates consideration that disparate climatic processes operating on narrower temporal scales and local spatial scales may have played a critical role in this cardinal and foundational event. Novel, state-of-the-art, complementary and interdisciplinary methods derived from archaeology and geosciences are well-placed to break new ground by focusing on seasonality and other high-resolution spatial and temporal climatic and environmental patterns as some of the driving forces for dispersal of early Homo. This collaboration of archaeologists, geochemists, paleontologists, and geologists from the United States, Israel, Republic of Georgia, and Australia will explore the unfamiliar pattern of seasonality, climate and environment which early humans faced in the Levant. Knowledge of the type, extent and degree of past biological human adaptation holds promise for illuminating issues on the distributions and capacities of modern humans in varying climatic regimes. Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most perilous processes facing humanity in the 21st century and understanding human biological limits is paramount in addressing these global concerns. The research will provide a platform for fostering professional and public discourse on the interactions throughout time among climate, environment, and human responses, enhancing science education across multiple academic levels, and supporting the recruitment of undergraduate students from underrepresented groups through mentoring aimed to create leaders in scholarship, research and public life. The research team will derive new data on the local climate and environment of two archaeological sites in Israel and the Republic of Georgia dating from 2 - 1.2 million years ago, which are the some of the earliest sites of humans out of Africa. Combining new dating methods, archaeological excavations, fossil analyses across the spectra of morphology, histology and chemistry will permit rigorous evaluation of the links between climate, environment and hominin population dynamics. Furthermore, the team will generate new comparative methods for the study of paleoclimatology and paleoecology, which will be used for developing a comprehensive database that will be made publicly available.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

这项研究将调查气候和环境变化对非洲早期祖先迁移的影响，以及他们对180万年前的新环境的适应。先前关于气候人际关系的奖学金集中在早期人类对炎热，干旱和开放的稀树草原栖息地的独特形态和行为适应，并将早期人类的分散与欧亚大陆的Savanna Grandland的发展联系起来。但是，在广泛的千禧年时间尺度和/或在全球大陆空间尺度上扩展稀树草原走廊的证据是模棱两可的，因此需要考虑认为，在较窄的时间尺度上运行的不同气候过程和局部空间尺度可能在这一基本事件和基础事件中起着关键作用。从考古学和地球科学得出的新颖，最先进的，互补和跨学科的方法是通过关注季节性和其他高分辨率的空间和时间气候和环境模式来揭示新的基础的，这是一些驱动力，以促进早期人本的分散。来自美国，以色列，佐治亚州和澳大利亚的考古学家，地球化学家，古生物学家和地质学家的合作将探索早期人类在黎凡特面临的季节性，气候和环境的陌生模式。对过去生物人类适应的类型，程度和程度的知识有望在不同气候制度中阐明现代人类的分布和能力的问题。人为气候变化是21世纪人类面临的最危险过程之一，了解人类生物学限制对于解决这些全球关注至关重要。这项研究将为培养有关气候，环境和人类反应之间整个时间之间互动的专业和公众讨论的平台，增强跨多个学术水平的科学教育，并通过旨在通过旨在在奖学金，研究和公共生活领域创造领导者的指导者来支持来自代表性不足的团体的本科生的招募。研究团队将获取有关以色列和佐治亚共和国两个考古遗址的当地气候和环境的新数据，其历史可追溯到2至120万年前，这是非洲人类最早的一些地点。结合新的约会方法，考古发掘，整个形态学谱，组织学和化学的化石分析将允许对气候，环境和人类种群动态之间的联系进行严格的评估。此外，该团队将为古生物学和古生态学研究生成新的比较方法，该方法将用于开发一个全面的数据库，该数据库将被公开可用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并认为值得通过基金会的智力和更广泛影响的评估来进行评估，以审查审查Criteria。