Paleoanthropological Research at the Fossil Primate Sites of the Fayum, Egypt

该项目旨在从埃及北方的法尤姆洼地回收灵长类动物和其他脊椎动物化石，该地区是非洲-阿拉伯大陆上唯一连续的始新世中晚期和渐新世早期（约3 800万至3 200万年）含矿大陆沉积层。来自法尤姆地区的化石灵长类动物为我们提供了关于人类总科（包括猴子、猿和人类）早期进化的最详细的文件，当时旧大陆的卡他鼻类动物（catarrhines）被认为已经从新大陆的扁鼻类动物（platyrrhines）中分化出来。最近在法尤姆地区发现的中始新世晚期化石地点恢复了一个全新的基底类人猿组合，以及灵长类动物群的最早记录，包括懒猴、加拉戈斯和狐猴（现存的或“冠”链鼻猴）。恢复额外的，更完整的，从所有的始新世和渐新世地层暴露在法尤姆地区的蜥蜴和strepsirrhine化石将是至关重要的，阐明模式和时间的早期灵长类动物多样化在非洲和解剖和适应灵长类动物群，引起了所有后来生活和灭绝的蜥蜴。 野外和实验室工作将继续测试与早期灵长类和链鼻类进化中以下问题相关的假设：1）解剖特征进化的模式和序列; 2）解剖多样性和系统发育关系; 3）气候变化对运动和饮食适应的影响; 4）古近纪灵长类动物地理学，以及5）主要灵长类动物谱系内分歧的时间。此外，研究小组将继续分析和描述与这些早期灵长类动物一起生活的其他哺乳动物群体，并将这些信息与其他地质数据相结合，以提供Birket Qarun，Qasr el-Sagha和Jebel Qatrani地层中所代表的古代环境的完整图片。Fayum灵长类动物化石提供了灵长类动物进化史上重要阶段的罕见一瞥，这对全人类都有很大的意义。这项工作最广泛的影响将来自对这些化石的详细分析以及随后将这些信息传播到公共领域。围绕法尤姆地区新灵长类化石描述的宣传也将有助于突出古生物学研究的效用，作为一种手段，展示塑造我们与其他灵长类动物共同历史的进化过程的现实。在埃及的古生物学工作将使对古人类学和古脊椎动物学感兴趣的美国和埃及青年学生能够继续进行实地培训，并将导致与在埃及地质调查和采矿管理局以及埃及地质博物馆工作的埃及古生物学家进行重要的科学合作。

This project seeks to recover fossil primates and other vertebrates from the Fayum Depression in northern Egypt, an area that contains the only continuous sequence of fossiliferous continental middle-to-late Eocene and early Oligocene (approximately 38 to 32 million-year-old) deposits on the Afro-Arabian landmass. Fossil primates from the Fayum region provide our most detailed documentation of the early evolution of Anthropoidea (the group containing monkeys, apes, and humans) during the time period when the Old World anthropoids (catarrhines) are thought to have diverged from the New World anthropoids (platyrrhines). Recently discovered later middle Eocene fossil localities in the Fayum region have led to the recovery of an entirely new assemblage of basal anthropoids as well as the earliest record of the primate group containing lorises, galagos, and lemurs (the extant or "crown" Strepsirrhini). Recovery of additional, more complete, anthropoid and strepsirrhine fossils from all of the Eocene and Oligocene horizons exposed in the Fayum region will be critical for elucidating the pattern and timing of early primate diversification in Africa and the anatomy and adaptations of the primate group that gave rise to all later living and extinct anthropoids. The field and laboratory work will continue to test hypotheses related to the following issues in early anthropoid and strepsirrhine evolution: 1) pattern and sequence of anatomical character evolution; 2) anatomical diversity and phylogenetic relationships; 3) influence of climate change on locomotor and dietary adaptations; 4) Paleogene primate biogeography, and 5) timing of divergences within major primate lineages. In addition, the team will continue to analyze and describe other mammalian groups that lived alongside these early primates, and will synthesize this information with other geological data to provide a complete picture of the ancient environments represented in the Birket Qarun, Qasr el-Sagha, and Jebel Qatrani Formations.The Fayum primate fossils provide rare glimpses into important stages in primate evolutionary history, and should be of great interest to humanity in general. The broadest impact of this work will come through detailed analysis of these fossils and subsequent dissemination of this information into the public realm. The publicity that will surround the description of new primate fossils from the Fayum region will also help to highlight the utility of paleontological inquiry as a means for demonstrating the reality of the evolutionary processes that shaped our shared history with other primates. Paleontological work in Egypt will allow for the continued field training of young American and Egyptian students interested in paleoanthropology and vertebrate paleontology, and will lead to important scientific collaborations with Egyptian paleontologists working in the Egyptian Geological Survey and Mining Authority and the Egyptian Geological Museum.