Doctoral Dissertation Research: Optimal time scales for integrating paleoecological and fossil data in human evolutionary studies

博士论文研究：在人类进化研究中整合古生态和化石数据的最佳时间尺度

• 批准号: 2117544
• 负责人: John Kingston
• 金额: $ 1.26万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2021-09-01 至 2023-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2117544&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Optimal; time

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Humans have a unique suite of biological adaptations, many of which can be observed at various points in the primate and human evolutionary fossil record. To investigate how and why these adaptations occurred, it is critical that scientists consider not only the fossils themselves but their ecological and environmental contexts. This doctoral dissertation project addresses important questions about the optimal time scale(s) for investigating links between early humans and their environments. The investigators use data from high-resolution geological sediments to reconstruct and analyze environmental change at various scales of observation and consider how different patterns emerge depending on scale. The project also includes opportunities for student training and mentoring, public science outreach activities, and strengthening of international research collaborations.Interpretations of large- and small-scale paleoecological trends are developed to assess how scale may influence interpretations of mammalian dietary ecology, as well as early human environments within a relatively continuous geologic sequence where fossil apes and humans have been recovered. The investigators develop long-term, coarsely resolved dietary data for 8 herbivore lineages for periods from 13-8.5 Ma and 5.3-1.6 Ma. They develop temporally refined, short-term dietary data for herbivores from 4-2 Ma. Each fossil sample is correlated to a specific geologic horizon— and subsequently a specific date—for which detailed paleoclimatic and paleobotanical data have been published. The project enables the diets of individual animals to be reconstructed to the level of vegetation type and then be compared to outstanding paleoclimatic datasets in order to better understand prevailing modes of paleoecological change in the region. These data can advance the integration of paleoecological patterns at various temporal scales to help clarify the types of environmentally-selective forces experienced by the hominin and hominoid lineages.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.

该奖项的全部或部分资金来源于《2021 年美国救援计划法案》（公法 117-2）。人类具有一套独特的生物适应能力，其中许多适应能力可以在灵长类动物和人类进化化石的不同阶段观察到。为了了解这些适应是如何以及为何发生的，科学家不仅要考虑化石本身，还要考虑它们的生态和环境背景，这一点至关重要，该博士论文项目旨在研究有关早期人类之间联系的最佳时间尺度的重要问题。和研究人员利用高分辨率地质沉积物的数据来重建和分析不同观测尺度的环境变化，并考虑不同尺度下如何出现不同的模式。该项目还包括学生培训和指导、公共科学推广活动的机会。并加强国际研究合作。对大尺度和小尺度古生态趋势的解释是为了评估尺度如何影响对哺乳动物饮食生态学的解释，以及在相对连续的地质序列中早期人类环境的解释，在这些地质序列中，化石猿和人类已经存在。研究人员开发了 8 个食草动物谱系 13-8.5 Ma 和 5.3-1.6 Ma 时期的长期、粗略的饮食数据。样本与特定的地质层位（以及随后的特定日期）相关，该日期的详细古气候和古植物学数据已被发布，该项目使得个体动物的饮食能够被重建。植被类型的水平，然后与杰出的古气候数据集进行比较，以便更好地了解该地区古生态变化的普遍模式。这些数据可以促进不同时间尺度的古生态模式的整合，以帮助阐明环境选择力的类型。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。