The Mio-Pliocene of the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia

埃塞俄比亚中阿瓦什的多学科研究正在揭示人类起源和进化的重要新层面。 该基金支持古生物学家，地质学家和地质年代学家。 这些项目科学家正在协调他们的努力，重建环境，并记录过去600万年来非洲的物理，生物和技术变化。 关于全球气候变化等各种主题的数据（通过与来自阿拉伯海和亚丁湾的相邻深海钻探岩心的连接显示），最早的原始人类的古栖息地（通过同位素研究、化石花粉和微型哺乳动物发现），非洲之角的地质演化（通过对与含火山岩沉积物互层的火山岩进行的地层学和地质年代学工作揭示）。 研究目标包括非洲Aramis、Sagantole和Kuseralee Dora最古老的原始人类沉积物。 该团队将挖掘中央阿瓦什复合体的沉积物，以努力从440万至520万年的火山岩中恢复人类祖先遗骸。 对研究区域西部边缘的勘测发现了更古老的沉积物。 科学家们将做出重大努力，通过放射性测量法确定这些岩石的年代，并从中提取动物群遗骸，包括更古老的原始人类化石，这些化石应该接近人类/猿的分歧，甚至可能早于人类/猿的分歧。 该研究项目已经确定，中阿瓦什的中新世和上新世沉积物是世界上揭示人类生涯最早阶段的最重要的沉积物。 已经在那里发现的原始人类化石的年龄是奥杜威峡谷底部的两倍多，比露西早了100多万年。 拟议的三年研究将从精确控制的空间、时间和环境背景中收集这些地区的全面古生物学数据集。 这项研究将为我们打开一扇了解过去的新窗口。

Multidisciplinary research in the Middle Awash, Ethiopia, is revealing important new dimensions of human origins and evolution. This funding supports paleontologists, geologists, and geochronologists. These project scientists are coordinating their efforts to reconstruct environments and to document physical, biological, and technological change in Africa over the last six million years. Data on topics as diverse as global climatic change (revealed by connections with adjacent deep-sea drill cores from the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Aden), the paleohabitats of the earliest hominids (revealed by isotopic studies, fossil pollen, and micromammals), and the geological evolution of the Horn of Africa (revealed by stratigraphic and geochronological work on the volcanic rocks interbedded with the fossiliferous sediments) will be generated by the project. Research targets include the oldest hominid-bearing sediments in Africa, at Aramis, Sagantole, and Kuseralee Dora. The team will excavate sediments of the Central Awash Complex in an effort to recover human ancestor remains from between volcanic rocks dated to 4.4 and 5.2 myr. Reconnaissance of the western margin of the study area has revealed even older sediments. A major effort will be made to date these rocks radiometrically, and to extract faunal remains from them, including even older hominid fossils that should approach, and possibly predate, the human/ape divergence. The research project has established that the Miocene and Pliocene sediments of the Middle Awash are the most important in the world for revealing the earliest stages of the human career. The hominid fossils already recovered there are over twice as old as those from the bottom of Olduvai Gorge, and over a million years older than Lucy. The proposed three years of research will gather comprehensive paleontological data sets for these areas from precisely controlled spatial, temporal, and environmental contexts. This research will open new windows on the deep past.