Anthropological and Paleontological Research at the Fossil Site of the Fayum, Egypt

这个灵长类古生物研究项目跨越了埃及法尤姆盆地的三个野外挖掘季节，随后在杜克大学和合作的研究实验室对发现的化石进行了研究和分析。该项目的目标是更多地了解猴子、猿类和人类的最早祖先。之前的发现使这里成为世界上研究灵长类起源和进化的最重要的地点之一。目前的项目将从法尤姆所代表的始新世和渐新世时代的广泛早期灵长类动物中提取头骨、颌骨和颅后骨骼元素。这些化石可以追溯到大约3600万到2600万年前。将从法尤姆的十几个采石场挖掘出来的灵长类化石，很少被发现是相关的骨骼部分。因此，需要在很长一段时间内进行持续的研究和挖掘，以通过系统积累额外的、通常不为人所知的肢体骨骼和头骨元素来增加我们对该地区已知的20多种已灭绝灵长类物种的了解。大多数被描述的物种都是从颌骨和牙齿中得知的，所以还有很多有待发现的地方。非洲似乎是高等灵长类动物出现的大陆，法尤姆拥有非洲在感兴趣的时期唯一连续的沉积序列。

This primate paleontological research project spans three field seasons of excavation in the Fayum Basin of Egypt, with subsequent study and analysis of recovered fossils carried out at Duke University and cooperating research laboratories. The objective of the project is to learn more about the earliest forerunners of monkeys, apes, and humans. Previous discoveries have made this one of the world's most important locations for research in primate origins and evolution. The current project will yield skulls, jaws and post-cranial skeletal elements from a broad range of early primates of both Eocene and Oligocene age represented in the Fayum. These date to between about 36 and 26 million years ago. Primate fossils, to be excavated from nearly a dozen quarries in the Fayum, are seldom found as associated skeletal parts. As a consequence, sustained research and excavation over long time periods is required to augment our knowledge of the more than two dozen extinct primate species known from the region by the systematic accumulation of additional, frequently unknown, limb bones and cranial elements. Most of the described species are known only from jaws and teeth, so much remains to be discovered. Africa appears to be the continent where higher primates arose, and the Fayum holds the only continuous sequence of deposits in Africa during the time period of interest.