Exploration for Fossil Primates in the Carbonatites of Namibia

在南非的一些地点发现了灵长类动物的骨骼化石，包括与人类血统密切相关的几个物种的遗骸。然而，像这样的化石在南部非洲的其他地区(如博茨瓦纳、安哥拉和纳米比亚)却鲜为人知。这些遗址的几乎所有化石都聚集在岩溶洞穴中，这些洞穴形成于南非、博茨瓦纳、安哥拉和纳米比亚露出的石灰岩中。这些石灰岩洞穴只产生了几块灵长类骨骼化石。然而，纳米比有一些非常古老的火山侵入岩，这些岩石的化学成分使它们同样容易通过水溶解形成洞穴。在纳米比亚各地已发现11个碳酸盐岩侵入岩。在其中一个侵入岩中形成的两个岩溶洞穴系统中发现了距今约10万年至约250万年前的化石。该项目将探索纳米比亚剩余的10块碳酸盐岩，以确定它们是否也包含新生代洞穴沉积物化石。特别是，人们希望通过这次调查能发现更多可能含有灵长类化石骨骼的地点。任何这样的化石都将大大增加我们对非洲灵长类进化和古生态的了解。

Fossil bones of primates, including the remains of several species that are closely related to the human lineage, have been recovered from a number of sites in South Africa. Fossils such as these, however, are very poorly known from other areas of southern Africa (e.g., Botswana, Angola, and Namibia). Almost all the fossils from these sites accumulated in karst caves that had formed in the limestones that outcrop in South Africa, Botswana, Angola and Namibia. These limestone caves have yielded only a few fossilized primate bones. However, there are a number of very old volcanic intrusives in Namibi, and the chemical composition of these rocks makes them equally susceptible to cave formation through water dissolution. Eleven carbonatite intrusives have been identified throughout Namibia. Fossils dating from about 100 thousand to some 2.5 million years ago have been discovered in two karst cave systems that formed in one of these intrusives. This project will explore the remaining ten carbonatites in Namibia to determine whether they also contain fossiliferous cave sediments of Cenozoic age. In particular, it is hoped that additional sites that may contain fossil primate bones will be identified by this survey. Any such fossils will add significantly to our understanding of primate evolution and paleoecology in Africa.