SBER Instrumentation: Vehicle to be used in Anthropological Field Research on the Giant Extinct Lemurs and Associated Fauna of Madagascar

Simons 0083774这里提出的研究项目的目标是从马达加斯加石灰岩岩溶地区的洞穴和各种地点的沼泽沉积物中收集灵长类动物和其他脊椎动物亚化石的新标本。工作重点是托利亚拉（图利尔）附近马哈法利喀斯特的一系列洞穴。我们将在西部的Bemaraha Massif和北方的Narinda半岛探索新的地点。我们还将返回马达加斯加北方富饶的安卡拉纳地块，以及Ampasambazimba沼泽地和最近重新发现的Masinandraina。这项研究计划已经持续了几年，最近由NSF BNS 89-11315，BNS 92-07084和96-30350资助。早些时候，我们发现了几乎所有已灭绝的巨型狐猴的最完整的骨骼，基于这些相关发现，许多新的调查路线已经开辟。这项合作涉及来自五所或更多大学的科学家。在我们需要到达的地区进行发现的道路是可怕的或几乎不存在的。有可怕的磨损的车辆和几个我们以前已经停止运作。近年来，人们对试图了解马达加斯加殖民者与他们遇到的特有物种之间的相互作用以及记录环境变化在灭绝过程中的作用产生了极大的兴趣。我们已经了解了很多关于灭绝和生活狐猴的古分布，我们已经记录了迄今为止未被识别的走廊和来自岛上不同地区的动物群交流。我们现在开始了解近代和古生物群落之间的相似性和差异，我们希望进一步详细记录这种持续灭绝事件的性质或“规则”（如果有的话）和时间框架。为此，我们计划收集新的亚化石年代，寻找人类和巨型狐猴同时代的更好证据，关注亚化石的系统学和生态地理学变化，并在必要时测试和修改我们最近通过生态形态学重建的“生态空间”。关于马达加斯加灵长类动物灭绝的可能原因的争议仍然存在：无论是疾病、环境变化、人手，还是它们之间的协同作用。需要进行更多的全岛范围的放射性碳年代测定，以确定灭绝波的时间长度，并更好地记录环境变化的时间。非常真实的可能性存在，马达加斯加的不同地区经历了不同的侮辱组合，灭绝过程是零碎的和区域性的。相关的动物群，特别是鸟类和小型哺乳动物的分析，将提供新的证据，在particlhr地区的环境变化，并使我们能够评估的性质和时间深度的区域endemicity.Discoveries取得的日期从这个项目已经彻底改变了我们的理解，基本上所有已知类型的巨型灭绝狐猴，并增加了一些新的物种仍在不断增长的马达加斯加灵长类动物类群的名册。我们希望在Bemaraha和Tulear地区计划的新探索将扩大我们对最稀有物种的了解，如Hadropithecus和巨型指狐猴，或者可能导致新形式的发现。我们希望我们的团队在以前赠款下工作的效率已经通过下面列出的许多发现和最近的出版物得到了证明。目前的提案要求为1999年的100 GX丰田Landcruiser Station Wagon提供80%的资金。

Simons0083774The objective of the research project proposed here is to gather new collections of primate and other vertebrate subfossils in Madagascar from caves in limestone karst regions and from swamp deposits at a variety of sites. Efforts are focused on a series of caves in the Mahafaly Karsts near Toliara (Tulear). We will explore new sites in the western Bemaraha Massif and the northern Narinda Peninsula. We will also return to the productive Ankarana Massif of northern Madagascar and to the marsh sites of Ampasambazimba and the recently rediscovered Masinandraina. This research program has continued for several years, more recently funded by NSF BNS 89-11315, BNS 92-07084 and 96-30350. Earlier we found the most complete skeletons known for almost all giant extinct lemurs, and many new lines of investigation have opened up based on these associated finds. The cooperation involves scientists from five or more Universities. Roads in the regions we need to reach in order to make discoveries are awful or nearly nonexistent. There is terrific wear and tear on the vehicles and several we previously had have ceased to function. Hence, this proposal.Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in the attempt to understand the interaction in Madagascar between colonizing humans and the endemic species they met, as well as in documenting the role of environmental change in the extinction process. We have learned a great deal about paleodistributions of both extinct and living lemurs, and we have documented hithertofore unrecognized corridors and exchanges of fauna from different regions of the island. We are now beginning to understand the similarities and differences between modern and paleo- communities of the recent past, and we hope to document further, and in greater detail, the nature or "rules" (if any) and temporal framework of this continuing extinction event. To do so, we plan to gather new dates for subfossils, to search for better evidence of the contemporaneity of humans and giant lemurs, to focus on the systematics and ecogeographic variation of the subfossUs, and to test and modify if necessary our recent reconstructions of "ecospace" via ecomorphology.Controversy persists as to the probable agency for primate extinction in Madagascar: whether by disease, environmental change, human hands, or by their synergistic interaction. Additional island-wide radiocarbon dates are needed to establish the temporal length of the wave of extinction and better document the timing of environmental change. The very real possibility exists that different regions of Madagascar experienced a different combination of insults, and the extinction process was piecemeal and regionally distinct. Analysis of the associated fauna, particularly birds and small mammals, will provide new evidence about environmental change in particulhr regions and allow us to assess the nature and time depth of regional endemicity.Discoveries made to date from this project have revolutionized our understanding of essentially all known types of giant extinct lemurs and have added a few new species to the still growing roster of Malagasy primate taxa. We hope that new exploration planned here in the Bemaraha and Tulear regions will expand our knowledge of the rarest species such as Hadropithecus and the giant aye-aye or may lead to the discovery of new forms. We hope that the efficacy of our team working under previous grants has been demonstrated by the many finds and recent publications listed below.The present proposal requests 80% funding for al00GX Toyota 1999 model Landcruiser Station Wagon.