Collaborative Research: Joint Paleontological and Archeological Investigations of Modern Human Origins

合作研究：现代人类起源的联合古生物学和考古学调查

• 批准号: 1947147
• 负责人: J. Michael Plavcan
• 金额: $ 21.11万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-06-01 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1947147&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Joint; Paleontological; Archeological

The origin of modern humans is one of the central issues in the anthropological sciences. This project investigates an extraordinary new fossil site yielding novel information about this critical time-period in human evolutionary history, including remains of immediate ancestors, the tools they made, and the environments in which they lived. The project brings together an international collaborative team to employ the latest methods in collecting and analyzing fossil and archaeological data. The team will strengthen scientific collaborations by training students in analytical and field methods. The results of the project will be shared publicly through school visits and science fairs. All data and results will be shared digitally with the international community, both scientific and public, allowing people from around the world access to evidence of our shared origins. Recent discoveries suggest that modern human origins are more complex than originally thought, but the limited fossil and archaeological record has obscured exactly when, where, how, and why modern humans appeared. A newly discovered site is unique in both the number of human remains recovered to date and the extraordinary data on the past environments it preserves. So far, this site has yielded complete skull and partial skeleton of an early modern human, remains of several other individuals, and a large number of tools. The site also preserves an abundance of fossils of animals that lived alongside these early humans, providing key data on their environment and ecology. This site is geologically correlated with other famous hominin sites permitting an extraordinary opportunity to compare early modern human behavior across different environments of the same past ecosystem during the same geological time-period. The investigators plan on several field seasons to collect and analyze human and other fossils, gather and study the abundant tools, and document the geology of the site. Some fossils will be reconstructed digitally, and the resulting 3D models will be shared publicly along with data on archaeological and animal remains. After fieldwork is complete, an international team of investigators will be brought together to analyze the anatomical, environmental, geological, and archaeological data to provide integrated analyses and further advance knowledge about the origins of modern humans.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.

现代人类的起源是人类学科学中的核心问题之一。该项目调查了一个非凡的新化石站点，该网站在人类进化史上产生了有关此关键时期的新信息，包括直接祖先的遗体，他们制作的工具以及它们所生活的环境。该项目汇集了一个国际合作团队，以采用收集和分析化石和考古数据的最新方法。该团队将通过培训学生分析和现场方法来加强科学合作。该项目的结果将通过学校访问和科学博览会公开共享。所有数据和结果将与科学和公众的国际社会以数字方式共享，使来自世界各地的人们获得我们共同起源的证据。最近的发现表明，现代人类的起源比最初想象的要复杂，但是有限的化石和考古记录确切地掩盖了何时，何地，如何以及为什么现代人类出现。迄今为止，新发现的网站在人类遗体的数量和过去保留的环境中的非凡数据中都是独一无二的。到目前为止，该站点已经产生了早期现代人类的完整头骨和部分骨骼，还有其他几个人的遗体以及大量工具。该遗址还保留了与这些早期人同在的动物的丰富化石，提供了有关其环境和生态学的关键数据。该站点在地质上与其他著名的人类网站相关，允许在同一地质时间期间在过去同一生态系统的不同环境中比较早期的现代人类行为的非凡机会。研究人员计划在几个田间季节收集和分析人类和其他化石，收集和研究丰富的工具，并记录该地点的地质。一些化石将通过数字数进行重建，由此产生的3D模型将与考古和动物遗体的数据一起公开共享。现场工作完成后，将汇集一个国际调查人员团队，以分析解剖，环境，地质和考古数据，以提供综合分析，并进一步提高有关现代人类起源的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用该基金会的知识分子优点和广泛的影响来评估NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得的支持。