U.S.-Australia Joint Seminar: Quaternary Extinctions / Sydney, Australia / August 1988

该奖项将支持由芝加哥大学的理查德·G·克莱因博士、澳大利亚悉尼大学的理查德·赖特博士和新西兰奥塔戈大学的阿托尔·J·安德森联合举办的研讨会--“第四次灭绝”。来自美国的12名参与者将于1988年8月6日至11日在悉尼大学与来自澳大利亚的12名科学家和来自新西兰的3名科学家一起参加。研讨会的目的是为了了解为什么澳大利亚和美洲在更新世末期都发生了大规模的动物灭绝。与会者将讨论：(1)由地貌或其他替代证据，特别是通过放射性碳测年揭示的物种灭绝的年代学；(2)物种灭绝与气候变化或灭绝与人类史前重大事件(包括美洲和澳大利亚人的首次出现)之间重合的考古学、古生物学、地球化学和地貌学证据。史前晚期席卷太平洋的鸟类灭绝浪潮为更新世晚期的物种灭绝事件提供了一个有趣的潜在类比，新西兰与会者将特别讨论这一事件的相关性。这次美国-澳大利亚-新西兰联合研讨会将首次对美国和澳大利亚的物种灭绝事件进行深入比较。迄今为止，致力于这一问题的美国和澳大利亚/新西兰学者在很大程度上是相互孤立地工作。区域间比较无疑将提供新的见解，即更新世末期大量动物物种的灭绝主要是由人类活动还是气候变化造成的。

This award will support a seminar, "Quaternary Extinctions," organized jointly by Drs. Richard G. Klein of the University of Chicago, Richard Wright of the University of Sydney, Australia and Atholl J. Anderson of the University of Otago, New Zealand. Twelve participants from the U.S. will join 12 scientists from Australia and three from New Zealand between 6 and 11 August 1988 at the University of Sydney. The purpose of the seminar is to understand why massive faunal extinctions occurred in both Australia and the Americas near the end of the Pleistocene. Participants will discuss: (1) the chronology of extinctions, as revealed by geomorphic or other proxy evidence and especially by radiocarbon dating; and (2) the archeological, paleobiological, geochemical, and geomorphic evidence for a coincidence between extinctions and climatic change or between extinctions and important events in human prehistory, including the first appearance of people in the Americas and Australia. A wave of bird extinctions that swept the Pacific in late prehistoric times provides an interesting potential analog for the late Pleistocene extinction events, and its pertinence will be addressed particularly by New Zealand participants. This joint U.S.-Australia-New Zealand seminar will enable the first in-depth comparison between the American and Australian extinction events. To date, American and Australian/New Zealand scholars working on this question have, for the most part, worked in isolation from one another. Interregional comparisons will undoubtedly provide new insights as to whether the extinction of large numbers of animal species near the end of the Pleistocene resulted primarily from human activity or from climatic change.