U.S.-Egypt Cooperative Research: Geology, Paleontology and Biogeography of the North African Early Miocene

0403472米勒描述：该奖项是为了支持北卡罗来纳州温斯顿-塞勒姆的维克森林大学人类学系的Ellen米勒博士和埃及开罗开罗大学地质系的Ahmed Barkooky博士之间的合作研究。目标是通过在埃及西撒哈拉中新世早期的Wadi Moghra和Siwa Oasis进行地质和古生物学工作，提高我们对北非哺乳动物和灵长类进化的理解。莫格拉更出名的是，该遗址保存了一系列灭绝的哺乳动物，包括一种早期的旧世界猴子和一种在两种血统分歧后不久的猿。对锡瓦的了解要少得多。虽然在莫格拉和锡瓦发现了哺乳动物化石，但对莫格拉和锡瓦的古环境几乎一无所知，对莫格拉和锡瓦哺乳动物本身的系统学和古生物学也知之甚少。Moghra和Siwa位于非洲，但实际上比东非更接近欧亚大陆，提供了一个独特的视角来观察中新世早期欧亚和非洲哺乳动物之间接触的性质和程度。然而，来自北非地区的数据从未被完全整合到更大的哺乳动物地理学解释中。该项目有可能为我们理解高等灵长类动物的起源和新第三纪哺乳动物的扩散模式做出重大贡献，从一个时间段和地理区域来解释这些事件至关重要。PI的联合研究专长适合于破译Moghra和Siwa（El-Barkooky）的沉积学和地层学的联合任务，并使用这些地方的生物地层学来测试有关哺乳动物和灵长类动物进化的假设（米勒）。范围和广泛的影响：合作将产生重大影响。首先是在美国和埃及研究人员之间建立专业工作伙伴关系。小组的结构确保了充分整合的多学科专业知识，而没有冗余。此外，该项目还为三名学生（一名美国人，两名埃及人）提供培训。培训埃及古脊椎动物学家特别重要，因为埃及公民能够维持埃及这一分支科学的发展至关重要。到目前为止，埃及的脊椎动物古生物学家一直非常罕见，尽管埃及拥有世界上已知的一些最重要的化石地点。此外，莫格拉和锡瓦的工作对那些试图平衡长期发展和经济利益的机构特别重要，例如西部沙漠的石油和天然气勘探，以及来自确定和保护具有特殊科学，文化遗产和旅游价值的地区的发展收益。该项目的所有结果将由PI和贡献的探险队成员联合出版。该项目得到了美国-埃及联合基金方案的支持，该方案向两国的科学家和工程师提供赠款，以开展这些合作活动。

0403472MillerDescription: This award is to support a cooperative research between Dr. Ellen Miller, Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Dr. Ahmed Barkooky, Geology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. The goal is to enhance our understanding of North African mammalian and primate evolution, by conducting geological and paleontological work at Wadi Moghra and Siwa Oasis, early Miocene, Western Sahara, Egypt. Moghra is far better known as the site preserves an array of extinct mammals, including an early Old World monkey and an ape shortly after the divergence of the two lineages. Much less is known about Siwa. While the occurrence of fossil mammals at Moghra and Siwa has been documented, next to nothing is known about the paleoenvironment of either Moghra or Siwa, and little is known about the systematics and paleobiology of the Moghra or Siwa mammals themselves. The location of Moghra and Siwa, in Africa but physically closer to Eurasia than East Africa, provides a unique perspective from which to view the nature and extent of contact between early Miocene Eurasian and African mammals. However, data from North African localities has never been fully integrated into larger interpretations of mammalian biogeography. The project has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of higher primate origins and Neogene mammalian dispersal patterns, from a time period and geographic region that are critical for interpreting these events. The joint research expertise of the PIs are suited to the combined task of deciphering the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Moghra and Siwa (El-Barkooky), and using the biostratigraphy of these localities to test hypotheses about mammalian and primate evolution (Miller). Scope and broad Impact: The collaboration will have significant impacts. First is by the establishment of a professional working partnership between American and Egyptian researchers. The structure of the teams secures a fully integrated, multi-disciplinary expertise without redundancy. In addition, the project provides training for three students (one American, two Egyptian). The training of Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists is of particular importance because it is critical that Egyptian citizens be able to sustain the development of this branch of science in Egypt. Until now, Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists have been very rare, in spite of the fact that Egypt contains some of the most important fossil localities known anywhere in the world. Still further, work at Moghra and Siwa holds particular relevance for those institutions attempting to balance long term developmental and economic interests, such as oil and gas exploration in the Western Desert, with the developmental gains that come from identifying and preserving areas of particular scientific, cultural heritage and touristic value. All results stemming from this project will be published jointly by the PIs and contributing expedition members. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.