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

该项目旨在从埃及北部的法尤姆凹陷恢复灵长类和其他脊椎动物化石，该地区拥有非洲-阿拉伯大陆唯一连续的大陆化石沉积序列，即始新世中晚期和渐新世早期(约3800万至3200万年前)。来自法尤姆地区的灵长类化石为我们提供了关于人类总科(包括猴子、猿类和人类)早期进化的最详细的记录，当时东半球类人猿(卡他目)被认为与新大陆类人猿(鸭嘴兽)分化。最近在法尤姆地区发现的中始新世晚期化石地点，导致了一个全新的基本类人猿组合的发现，以及包含懒猴、Galagos和狐猴的灵长类动物群的最早记录(现存的或称“皇冠”的Strepsirrhini)。从法尤姆地区暴露的始新世和渐新世的所有地层中发现更多、更完整的类人猿和链鼻目动物化石，对于阐明非洲早期灵长类物种多样化的模式和时间以及导致所有后来存活和灭绝的灵长类动物群体的解剖和适应至关重要。野外和实验室工作将继续检验与以下问题有关的假说：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)古近纪灵长类生物地理学；5)主要灵长类进化的时间。此外，该团队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相结合，以提供伯克特卡伦、卡斯尔-萨哈和杰贝尔卡塔尼群所代表的古代环境的完整图景。法尤姆灵长类动物化石提供了对灵长类进化史上重要阶段的难得一瞥，应该会引起人类的极大兴趣。这项工作的最广泛影响将来自对这些化石的详细分析，并随后将这些信息传播到公共领域。围绕着对法尤姆地区新的灵长类化石的描述进行的宣传，也将有助于突出古生物研究的效用，将其作为一种手段，展示形成我们与其他灵长类动物共同历史的进化过程的现实。埃及的古生物学工作将使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能够继续进行实地培训，并将与在埃及地质调查和矿务局和埃及地质博物馆工作的埃及古生物学家开展重要的科学合作。

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.