Geology, Paleontology and Paleobiology of the North African Early Miocene

北非早中新世的地质学、古生物学和古生物学

• 批准号: 0808283
• 负责人: Ellen Miller
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Wake Forest University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-09-01 至 2010-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0808283&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Geology; Paleontology; Paleobiology; North; African

Geology, Paleontology and Paleobiology of the North African Early MioceneEllen Miller, Wake Forest University The goal of this international collaborative project is to enhance our understanding of North African mammalian and primate evolution. Wadi Moghra, Qattara Depression, Egypt, is an important site for paleontology because of a unique constellation of factors. These include the kinds of animals preserved at Moghra, the age of the locality, and the location of the site in Egypt far from most other early Miocene localities in East Africa. Before the early Miocene, Africa was an island continent with a largely endemic fauna. However, during the early Miocene, Afro-Arabian and Turkish tectonic plates collided resulting in a land bridge between Africa and Eurasia. For the first time in the Cenozoic, a host of new animals, including new primates, carnivores, and hoofed mammals appeared in Africa. Many of these animals, ca. 25 species in 15 families, are preserved as fossils in the rocks at Moghra. The specific goals of the Moghra project are: 1) to complete a comprehensive biostratigraphic plan of the early Miocene of Egypt, by extending previous geological and paleontological work at Moghra to include investigations of newly identified basal Miocene deposits lower in the geological sequence; 2) to strengthen preliminary reconstructions of the paleoenvironment at Moghra, by testing dietary and habitat preference hypotheses derived from occlusal morphology against biochemical analyses (calcium, carbon and oxygen stable isotopes); and 3) to contribute information from Moghra to larger, regional and pan-African interpretations of the transition from archaic faunas and floras (Oligocene and early Miocene) to more modern ones (early and middle Miocene), e.g., the rise of modern African mammals and the spread of grasslands from Eurasia into Africa. This project is co-funded by the SGP and OISE Programs at NSF.

北非早中新世的地质学、古生物学和古生物学这个国际合作项目的目标是加强我们对北非哺乳动物和灵长类动物进化的理解。由于一系列独特的因素，埃及Qattara洼地的Wadi Moghra是古生物学的一个重要地点。这些包括在Moghra保存的动物种类，地点的年龄，以及该地点在埃及的位置，与东非大多数其他早中新世的地点很远。中新世早期之前，非洲是一个岛屿大陆，有大量的地方性动物。然而，在中新世早期，非洲-阿拉伯和土耳其构造板块碰撞，形成了非洲和欧亚大陆之间的陆桥。在新生代，非洲第一次出现了许多新的动物，包括新的灵长类动物、食肉动物和有蹄哺乳动物。这些动物中有15科约25种，其中许多以化石的形式保存在莫格拉的岩石中。Moghra项目的具体目标是：1)通过扩展Moghra以前的地质和古生物学工作，包括对新发现的位于地质层序较低的中新世基底矿床的调查，完成埃及早中新世的全面生物地层计划；2)通过对比生物化学分析（钙、碳、氧稳定同位素），验证由咬合形态得出的饮食和栖息地偏好假设，加强对Moghra古环境的初步重建；3)提供来自Moghra的信息，为更大范围、区域性和泛非的解释提供信息，以解释从古代动物和植物区系（渐新世和早中新世）向更现代的动物和植物区系（早中新世和中中新世）的过渡，例如，现代非洲哺乳动物的兴起和草原从欧亚大陆向非洲的传播。该项目由NSF的SGP和OISE项目共同资助。