Dissertation Research: Late Miocene Paleontology of the Middle Awash Valley, Ethiopia: Faunal Description, Analysis and Interpretation

埃塞俄比亚的中亚瓦什地区一直是一个非常重要和多产的古生物区，出产了许多脊椎动物分类的化石遗骸，包括早期的原始人。从中潮间沉积物中采集到丰富的脊椎动物化石，为研究非洲晚第三纪脊椎动物演化提供了重要资料。该项目代表了对中阿瓦什河谷中新世末期脊椎动物的详细研究。这种比较分析的结果对于我们理解非洲晚中新世脊椎动物的历史是至关重要的。目前从这些矿床中产生的Ar/Ar和古地磁数据正在建立中瓦什地区可靠的年代地层学，从而完善了其他同期非洲晚中新世地区的生物年代学，这些地区没有辐射年龄。拟议中的研究结果将阐明古生物地理、古环境和动物群多样性在被认为是原始人分化的时间段。

The Middle Awash area of Ethiopia has been a remarkably important and productive paleontological region, yielding fossil remains of numerous vertebrate taxa, including early hominids. Abundant vertebrate fossils collected from Middle Awash deposits represent significant data relevant to studying the later Neogene vertebrate evolution in Africa. This project represents a detailed study of vertebrate fauna from the terminal Miocene of the Middle Awash Valley. Results from such comparative analyses are essential to our understanding of the Late Miocene vertebrate history of Africa. Argon/argon and paleomagnetic data currently being generated from these deposits are establishing a reliable chronostratigraphy for the Middle Awash, thereby refining biochronology of other contemporaneous African Late Miocene localities for which radiometric dates do not exist. The results of the proposed study will elucidate the paleobiogeography, paleoenvironment, and faunal diversity during the time at which hominids are believed to have differentiated