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

该项目旨在从埃及北部的Fayum洼地恢复灵长类动物化石和其他脊椎动物化石，该地区包含非洲-阿拉伯大陆上唯一的连续的始新世中晚期和渐新世早期（大约3800万到3200万年前）沉积层。来自Fayum地区的灵长类化石为类人猿（包括猴子、猿和人类）的早期进化提供了最详细的记录，当时人们认为旧大陆类人猿（卡塔莱人）与新世界类人猿（platyrrhines）已经分化。最近在Fayum地区发现的中始新世晚期化石位置导致了一个全新的基础类人猿组合的恢复，以及包含懒猴，大狐猴和狐猴（现存的或“冠”链猴）的灵长类群体的最早记录。在Fayum地区出土的始新世和渐新世所有地层中发现的额外的、更完整的类人猿和链霉菌化石，对于阐明非洲早期灵长类动物多样化的模式和时间，以及产生后来所有现存和灭绝的类人猿的灵长类动物群体的解剖和适应性至关重要。野外和实验室工作将继续检验与早期类人猿和链霉素进化有关的以下问题的假设：1)解剖特征进化的模式和顺序；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)古近系灵长类生物地理学；5)主要灵长类谱系的分化时间。此外，研究小组将继续分析和描述与这些早期灵长类动物生活在一起的其他哺乳动物群体，并将这些信息与其他地质数据综合起来，以提供Birket Qarun、Qasr el-Sagha和Jebel Qatrani地层所代表的古代环境的完整图景。Fayum灵长类动物化石为灵长类动物进化史上的重要阶段提供了罕见的一瞥，并且应该引起人类的极大兴趣。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，作为展示进化过程的现实手段，这种进化过程塑造了我们与其他灵长类动物的共同历史。埃及的古生物学工作将为对古人类学和脊椎动物古生物学感兴趣的年轻美国和埃及学生提供持续的实地培训，并将导致与在埃及地质调查与矿业管理局和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.