Revealing Hominid Origins

人科（我们的动物科）的起源和进化构成了一个基本的科学问题。 一个前所未有的发现阶段对这个问题的影响正在世界各地进行。 人类化石记录的长度最近翻了一番，现在延伸到500万到700万年的时期-以前分子研究认为这是人类起源的中心时期。 新发现的化石和背景数据已经证实了横跨东半球的实地和实验室研究。 科学现在站在揭示原始人类的古生物学的门槛上，完成了关键的背景证据。 这些丰富的新的和日益多样化的主要现场产生的数据已经挑战了个人和研究团队的能力，比较，整合和传播他们的结果。揭示原始人起源计划（RHOI）专注于500万至700万年的时间间隔，其中最近的发现直接和深刻地影响了人类在自然界中的地位的科学概念。 这一跨学科的国际倡议构成了一个持续的努力，以阐明人科的起源和最早的进化。 这是明确的合作。 它将支持15个国家正在进行的研究，由近50名核心研究科学家和数百名其他古生物学家，地质学家，地质年代学家，动物学家和其他相关学科的科学家进行。 RHOI国际合作旨在激活和加速许多非洲和欧亚实地的研究;促进世界各地实验室的分析;加强地球和生物科学家之间的跨学科活动;在发展中国家建立基础设施;加快数据传播，从而大大扩大人类起源研究的范围和规模。 该倡议是专门组织的，以支持，改善和扩展现场和实验室工作，包括勘探，挖掘，发现和分析。 RHOI将通过建立和支持国际分析工作组，通过加强古人类学基础设施，并通过建立创新和综合信息学机制，以共享数据来整合研究，该倡议的广泛影响体现在研究团队的结构和这些团队内部和之间的沟通上。研究结果将超越传统的学科界限，因为现在和古代的环境，生物群落和生物群落都在探索之中。 该合作计划旨在将有关原始人类起源的前沿研究的见解和结果及时带给国际科学界，外行观众和课堂。 专业参与者和相关的现场和实验室技术和支持人员都将反映对加强来自许多国家，种族，性别和背景的人的参与的承诺。 鉴于人类起源研究的重要性，该倡议将促进在建立榜样方面的类似努力。 它将促进和深化跨越国际界限和整个科学领域的教育。 RHOI将把这种包容性与加强基础设施，促进国际交流以及在非洲各地特别是发展中国家研究环境中促进教育工作相结合。相应地，并随着电子通信的增强，该倡议所支持的研究的性质和后果将得到广泛和迅速的传播，传播对象将远远超出古人类学、地球和生物科学界。

The origin and evolution of Hominidae (our zoological family) constitutes a fundamental scientific problem. An unprecedented phase of discovery bearing on this problem is underway across the world. The fossil record for hominids has recently doubled in length, now extending into the 5 to 7 million-year period--a time formerly identified by molecular studies as central to hominid origins. The newly-discovered fossils and contextual data have invigorated field and laboratory studies spanning the eastern hemisphere. Science now stands on the threshold of revealing the paleobiology of the ancestral hominid, complete with crucial contextual evidence. This wealth of novel and increasingly diverse primary field-generated data has challenged the abilities of individuals and research teams to compare, integrate, and disseminate their results.The Revealing Hominid Origins Initiative (RHOI) is focused on the 5 to 7 million-year interval wherein recent finds bear directly and profoundly upon scientific concepts of humanity's place in nature. This interdisciplinary and international initiative constitutes a sustained effort to illuminate the origin and earliest evolution of Hominidae. It is explicitly collaborative. It will support ongoing research in 15 countries, by nearly 50 core research scientists, and hundreds of other paleontologists, geologists, geochronologists, zoologists, and other scientists in allied disciplines. The international RHOI collaboration is designed to activate and accelerate research at many African and Eurasian field sites; to facilitate analyses in the laboratories around the world; to enhance interdisciplinary activities among earth and biological scientists; to build infrastructure in the developing world; and to speed the dissemination of data, thereby greatly extending human origins research in scope and in scale. The initiative is specifically organized to support, improve, and extend field and laboratory work, including exploration, excavation, discovery, and analysis. The RHOI will integrate research by creating and supporting international analytical working groups; by enhancing paleoanthropological infrastructure; and by creating innovative and integrative informatics mechanisms for data sharing.The broadened impact of the initiative is epitomized by the structure of research teams and communication within and between such teams. Research results will transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries as present and ancient environments, biomes, and biotas are explored. The collaborative initiative is designed to bring insights and consequences of cutting-edge research on hominid origins promptly to the international scientific community, the lay audience, and the classroom. Professional participants and associated field and laboratory technical and support staff will all reflect a commitment toward enhancing the involvement of people from many nations, ethnicities, genders, and backgrounds. Given the prominence of human origins research, the initiative will foster similar efforts in role-model building. It will promote and deepen education across international boundaries and throughout the sciences. RHOI will couple this inclusivity with the enhancement of infrastructure, the promotion of international communication, and the furtherance of educational efforts in specifically developing-world research settings across Africa. Correspondingly, and in keeping with enhancements in electronic communication, the nature and consequences of research supported by the initiative will receive wide and prompt dissemination to a worldwide audience far beyond the paleoanthropological, earth and biological sciences communities.