Acquisition of Vehicle for Paleontology and Geology Research Middle Awash, Ethiopia

在国家科学基金会的支持下，蒂姆·怀特博士将购买一辆四轮驱动的丰田陆地巡洋舰。怀特博士和他的合作者在埃塞俄比亚的阿瓦什中部地区进行美国国家科学基金会支持的古人类学实地研究。由于该地区没有道路，地形崎岖，四轮驱动车辆提供了唯一可行的地面运输手段。鉴于这项工作的多学科性质和所涉及的调查人员的数量，该小组严重缺乏实地车辆，这次购买将使研究能够以更有效的方式进行。中阿瓦什古人类学研究项目是一个多学科的努力，其目标是阐明人类的起源和进化。该研究区域包含了一系列跨越过去600万年的化石沉积物。最近的发现已经将中阿瓦什地区确立为世界上最重要的古人类研究地区之一，该项目致力于恢复早期人类起源和进化的证据，并将这些证据置于精确控制的空间、时间和环境背景中。在1992年和1993年，研究小组发现了最早的人类物种南猿的证据。1994年，阿拉米斯遗址发现了迄今为止发现的最古老的人类祖先的部分骨骼。这项研究显然是重要和富有成效的。购买一辆额外的汽车会让这种情况更加严重。

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Tim White will purchase a four wheel drive Toyota Landcruiser. Dr. White and his collaborators conduct NSF supported paleoanthropological field research in the Middle Awash region of Ethiopia. Because there are no roads in this region and the rugged nature of the terrain, four wheel drive vehicles provide the only feasible means of ground transportation. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the work and the number of investigators involved, the team is critically short of field vehicles and this purchase will allow the research to proceed in a more efficient manner. The Middle Awash paleoanthropological research project is a multidisciplinary effort whose objective is the elucidation of human origins and evolution. The research area contains a succession of fossiliferous sediments spanning the last six million years. Recent finds have established the Middle Awash as one of the world's most important paleoanthropological areas and the project is devoted to recovering evidence for early hominid origins and evolution and placing this evidence in precisely controlled spatial, temporal and environmental contexts. In 1992 and 1993 the team recovered evidence of the earliest hominid species Australopithecus ramidus. In 1994 the site of Aramis yielded the oldest partial skeleton of a human ancestor yet recovered. This research is clearly important and productive. Purchase of an additional vehicle will make it more so.