High Risk Exploratory Research -- Paleontological Survey of the Lake Rukwa Basin, Tanzania

高风险探索性研究——坦桑尼亚鲁夸湖盆地古生物调查

• 批准号: 0080804
• 负责人: Richard Sherwood
• 金额: $ 2万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2000
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2000-06-15 至 2002-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0080804&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Risk; Exploratory; Research; Paleontological; Survey

Historically, Tanzania has served as a major source for evidence into the evolution of humankind. In the relatively unexplored southwestern portion of the country, the Rukwa Basin presents favorable conditions for the preservation and recovery of primate fossil remains. The current project will be a survey and reconnaissance of this area to collect paleontological, and geological, samples relevant to human evolution from this relatively unexamined area. The Rukwa Basin is a northwest trending rift roughly 300km by 50km. Geologic surveys have identified four major stratigraphic units with the most relevant being the Lake Bed deposits dated roughly 10 -- 0.1 million years ago. The objectives of the project are as follows 1) survey of the Rukwa Basin; 2) collection of hominin fossils; 3) collection of other fossils, and geological specimens, relevant to dating of the area, or reconstruction of the paleoenvironment.Human origin studies have thrived in the past few decades from a variety of advances in analytical approach, or from the application of technology including medical imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT). Few advances, however, have as dramatic and immediate an impact as the announcement of new fossil finds. The past decade alone has seen one new genus and several new species of early hominin described. Equally important are reports expanding the known geographic distribution of some species (e.g., Australopithecus boisei in Ethiopia; Homo rudolfensis in Malawi). The proposed survey of the Rukwa basin hopes to add to the early hominin database by discovering new fossils and/or increasing the understanding of the ecological circumstances of human evolution.

从历史上看，坦桑尼亚一直是人类进化的主要证据来源。在该国相对未开发的西南部地区，Rukwa盆地为保存和恢复灵长类动物化石遗骸提供了有利条件。目前的项目将是对这一地区进行调查和侦察，从这一相对未被研究过的地区收集与人类进化有关的古生物学和地质学样本。Rukwa盆地是一个西北走向的裂谷，长约300公里，宽50公里。地质调查已经确定了四个主要的地层单位，其中最相关的是大约1000万至10万年前的湖床沉积物。该项目的目标如下：1)Rukwa盆地的调查；2)古人类化石收集；3)收集与该地区年代确定或古环境重建有关的其他化石和地质标本。在过去的几十年里，由于分析方法的各种进步，或者包括计算机断层扫描（CT）等医学成像技术在内的技术应用，人类起源研究蓬勃发展。然而，很少有什么进展能像新化石发现的宣布那样具有戏剧性和立竿见影的影响。仅在过去的十年里，人们就发现了一个新属和几个新种的早期古人类。同样重要的是扩大某些物种已知地理分布的报告（例如，埃塞俄比亚的布瓦塞南方古猿；马拉维的鲁道夫人）。对Rukwa盆地的拟议调查希望通过发现新的化石和/或增加对人类进化的生态环境的理解来增加早期人族数据库。