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艾伦米勒，维克森林大学这个国际合作项目的目标是提高我们对北非哺乳动物和灵长类动物进化的理解。埃及Qattara凹陷的Wadi Moghra是一个重要的古生物学遗址，因为它有一系列独特的因素。这些因素包括在莫格拉保存的动物种类，地点的年龄，以及该地点在埃及的位置，远离东非的大多数其他早中新世地点。在中新世早期之前，非洲是一个岛屿大陆，拥有大量特有的动物群。然而，在中新世早期，非洲-阿拉伯板块和土耳其板块发生碰撞，在非洲和欧亚大陆之间形成了一座陆桥。新生代第一次在非洲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，有很多。15个科的25个物种作为化石保存在莫格拉的岩石中。 Moghra项目的具体目标是：1）通过扩大Moghra以前的地质和古生物学工作，包括对地质序列中较低的新发现的中新世基底沉积物的调查，完成埃及中新世早期的综合生物地层计划; 2）加强对莫格拉古环境的初步恢复，通过测试饮食和栖息地偏好的假设来自咬合形态对生化分析（钙、碳和氧稳定同位素）;和3）贡献信息从莫格拉到更大的，区域和泛非对古代动植物群过渡的解释（渐新世和早中新世）到更现代的（早中新世和中中新世），例如，现代非洲哺乳动物的兴起以及草原从欧亚大陆向非洲的扩张。该项目由NSF的SGP和OISE计划共同资助。

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.