US-Egypt Cooperative Research: Anthropological and Palaeontological Research at the Fossil Primate Sites of the Fayum, Egypt

描述：该奖项是为了部分支持杜克大学生物人类与解剖学系主任Elwyn Simons博士与埃及地质调查与矿业管理局主席Gaber M. Naim博士领导的埃及团队之间的合作研究项目。该项目的目的是通过研究埃及法尤姆盆地的化石，更多地了解猴子、猿和人类最早的祖先。该项目将从法尤姆所代表的始新世和渐新世的早期灵长类动物中获得头骨、颌骨和后颅骨骼元素。这些可以追溯到3600万到2600万年前。非洲似乎是高等灵长类动物出现的大陆，而法尤姆拥有非洲唯一连续的沉积层序列。范围：该项目将支持两个具有互补能力和机构设施的团队之间的协作。美国考古队在化石的理论研究、发掘、鉴定和安装方面都很有实力。美国团队还将提供这项工作所需的最先进的设施。埃及科学家熟悉挖掘地点和近期可能影响数据解释的历史事件。他们还能够在组装和安装过程中维护和保存样品。美国团队的主要研究经费由社会、行为和经济研究部提供，为期3年。该项目完全符合国际项目司的目标。

Description: This award is for partial support of a collaborative research project between Dr. Elwyn Simons, Department of Biological Anthropology & Anatomy at Duke University, and an Egyptian team headed by Dr. Gaber M. Naim, Chairman of the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority in Cairo, Egypt. The objective of the project is to learn more about the earliest forerunners of monkeys, apes, and humans, by study of fossils from the Fayum basin of Egypt. The 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 36 and 26 million years ago. 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. Scope: This project will support collaboration between two teams with complementary capabilities and institutional facilities. The US team is well qualified in the theoretical studies, the excavation, identification, and mounting of the fossils. The US team also will provide access to the state-of-the-art facilities needed for this work. The Egyptian scientists are familiar with the excavation sites and the recent historical events that may effect the data interpretation. They are also capable of maintaining the samples and preserving them during the assembling and mounting process. The primary research funding for the US team is provided under a large 3-year award from the Division of Social, Behavioral and Economic Research. The project fits well within the objectives of the Division of International Programs.