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

学术成就计划于2005年秋季举办一个研讨会，研究人类进化的古气候和古环境框架。共同召集人是盖尔阿什利，安娜K.贝斯迈尔，安德鲁科恩，克雷格费贝尔，理查德波茨和杰伊夸德。我们认为，现在是时候让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界一起工作了。我们建议举办一个讲习班，参加者有：a）古人类学家、考古学家和古生物学家; B）与古人类学界密切合作的地质学家; c）参与收集和解释沉积物记录的古气候学家。本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钻的古环境记录。我们将主要关注非洲记录，那里发现了人类进化最长和最连续的记录。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，但其古环境框架的细节，特别是在大陆上的细节还不是很清楚。传统的人类化石地质学研究主要集中在遗址的对比和年代学上，每次发现时通常只提供基于当地遗址的描述。很少有人试图在区域内进行综合，或将关键地点置于更广泛的时间和空间背景下。随着对上新世-更新世天文气候强迫的日益认识和理解，有机会将大陆地质记录中的古气候和古环境以及考古学和古人类学记录中的进化历史结合起来。更广泛的影响多达六名研究涉及研讨会主题的高级研究生将积极参与讨论。他们作为不同学科、不同词汇的成员获得的经验，以及看到同一数据集的各种方法（也许是不同的解释）将指导他们制定一个共识的工作假设。这次研讨会的结果将以电子方式广泛传播，希望能够接触到广泛的受众。WoldeGabrielet等人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”，在2004年7月出版的《地球观测系统》上，这是一份古人类学家通常不会阅读的出版物。这篇文章描述了传统上没有合作的群体需要在任何一个群体都不可能独自解决的问题上进行合作。其目标是将对气候和气候变化在人类进化中可能发挥的作用有各种观点的研究人员聚集在一起。像这样的主题是跨学科的，经常会在正常的资助项目之间出现“裂缝”。在会议和出版机构的临界质量方面，科学协会也对它们进行了欺骗。必须做出额外的努力，把那些通常不参加同一次科学会议的小组聚集在一起。本次研讨会将有助于满足这一需求。

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.