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

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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.