Workshop Proposal: Paleoclimates and human evolution: Integrating continental drilling research with paleoanthropology and other geological records

研讨会提案：古气候和人类进化：将大陆钻探研究与古人类学和其他地质记录相结合

• 批准号: 0530405
• 负责人: Gail Ashley
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Rutgers University New Brunswick
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0530405&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Workshop; Proposal; Paleoclimates; human; evolution

Intellectual MeritA workshop to examine the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental framework of humanevolution is being planned for fall 2005. Co-convenors are Gail Ashley, Anna K.Behrensmeyer, Andrew Cohen, Craig Feibel, Richard Potts, and Jay Quade. We believethe time is ripe to bring anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists and climatologists,currently involved in the human evolution debate, together with the continental scientificdrilling community. We propose to hold a workshop with a) paleoanthropologists,archaeologists and paleontologists, b) geologists who have worked closely with thepaleoanthropological community, and c) paleoclimatologists involved in collecting andinterpreting sediment records. This workshop will integrate the record of homininevolution and their ecological communities, local and regional climate change historyand paleoenvironmental records from outcrop and deep drilling, We would focus thisworkshop primarily on the African record, where the longest and most continuousrecords of human evolution is found.The hominin fossil record reaches back in time to 6 million years ago and stone tools2.6 million years, but the details of paleoenvironmental framework particularly on thecontinents are not well known. Traditional geological studies of hominin-bearingdeposits have focused on correlation and chronology of sites, with usually only local sitebaseddescriptions accompanying each find. There have been few attempts tosynthesize within regions or to place key sites within a broader temporal and spatialcontext. With the growing realization and understanding of astronomic climate forcingduring the Plio-Pleistocene, there is an opportunity to integrate what is known about thepaleoclimate and paleoenvironment from the continental geologic record and theevolutionary history from archaeological and paleoanthropological records.Broader ImpactsUp to six advanced graduate students whose research involves an aspect of theWorkshop topic will be active participants in the discussions. The experience they gainas members of different disciplines with different vocabularies, as well as seeing thevariety of approaches to, and perhaps different interpretations of, the same data set willguide them in developing a consensual working hypothesis.The results from this workshop will be widely disseminated electronically hoping to reacha broad audience. The importance of the interdisciplinary approach and specificallyutilizing "geoscience" in paleoanthropological research was highlighted by WoldeGabrielet al., in the July 2004 issue of EOS, a publication not normally read bypaleoanthropologists. The article describes the need of groups that have nottraditionally worked together to collaborate on problems that neither group are likely tosolve on their own.The goal is to bring together researchers with a variety of perspectives on the role thatclimate and climate change might have played in human evolution. Topics such as theseare interdisciplinary and often fall through the 'cracks' between normal fundingprograms. They are also short-changed by scientific societies in terms of critical mass atconferences and by publishing outlets. Extra effort must be made to get groups togetherwho would not normally attend the same scientific meeting. This Workshop will helpaddress this need.

审查人类进化的古气候和古环境框架的智力梅里塔讲习班计划于2005年秋季举行。联合召集人是盖尔·阿什利、安娜·K·贝伦斯迈尔、安德鲁·科恩、克雷格·费贝尔、理查德·波茨和杰伊·奎德。我们认为，将目前参与人类进化辩论的人类学家、考古学家、地质学家和气候学家与大陆科学钻探团体聚集在一起的时机已经成熟。我们建议举办一次研讨会，有a)古人类学家、考古学家和古生物学家，b)与古人类界密切合作的地质学家，以及c)参与收集和解释沉积物记录的古气候学家。这次研讨会将整合人类进化及其生态群落的记录、当地和区域气候变化历史以及露头和深井钻探的古环境记录，我们将主要关注非洲记录，那里发现了最长和最连续的人类进化记录。人类化石记录可以追溯到600万年前，石器工具可以追溯到260万年前，但关于古环境框架的细节，特别是大陆的细节还不是很清楚。传统的人类矿床地质研究侧重于遗址的对比和年代学，通常只有基于当地遗址的描述伴随着每一次发现。很少有人尝试在区域内综合，或将关键地点置于更广泛的时间和空间背景下。随着人们对上更新世天文气候强迫的认识和理解的加深，有机会将大陆地质记录中关于古气候和古环境的已知知识与考古学和古人类学记录中的进化史结合起来。作为拥有不同词汇的不同学科的成员，他们获得的经验，以及看到对同一数据集的各种方法，甚至可能是对同一数据集的不同解释，将指导他们制定一致同意的工作假设。这次研讨会的结果将以电子方式广泛传播，希望接触到更广泛的受众。Wolde Gabrilets等人在2004年7月出版的《EOS》中强调了跨学科方法的重要性，特别是在古人类学研究中利用“地球科学”，这是一本通常不会被人类学家阅读的出版物。这篇文章描述了传统上没有合作过的群体需要在两个群体都不可能单独解决的问题上进行合作。目标是将具有不同观点的研究人员聚集在一起，探讨气候和气候变化可能在人类进化中扮演的角色。像这样的话题是跨学科的，经常会在正常的资助项目之间产生“裂痕”。在会议和出版机构的临界质量方面，他们也被科学协会欺骗了。必须做出额外的努力，将那些通常不会参加同一科学会议的团体聚集在一起。本研讨会将帮助满足这一需求。