RAPID:Collaborative Research: Excavation of an Underwater Cavern Containing Primates, Other Extinct Vertebrates and Archaeological Remains in Hispaniola-- A Site Under Threat

本研究的目标是对多米尼加共和国东南部的Padre Nuestro洞穴进行多学科调查。洞穴在水下，但在灭绝的脊椎动物和考古材料就位时，它的地面是干燥的。灵长类动物、啮齿动物和树懒起源于南美洲，并在中新世早期到达安的列斯群岛，但没有其他典型的中新世南美分类动物，如肉食性有袋动物、犰狳和无蹄类动物，这表明大陆和岛屿之间的联系是间歇性的，并且受到生物或跨水过滤的影响。Padre Nuestro的地板上有数千块松动的骨头，到目前为止，这些骨头包括许多种类的本土海绵状啮齿动物和几种地懒。安的列斯灵长类动物的头骨已经被发现并保存起来。一个特别的重点将是使用新材料重新评估灵长类动物和树懒的系统发育模式，因为这为关于安地列斯动物群的生物地理起源的争论提供了重要的信息：脊椎动物是通过过滤器到达的还是通过长距离的水上分散，以及有一个单一的还是多个分散事件？此外，洞穴中包含的考古材料将提高对伊斯帕尼奥拉岛树懒和灵长类动物灭绝的时间和原因的认识，特别是灭绝是由气候变化引起的还是由人类的到来引起的。如果这些考古遗迹能够证明自洞穴洪水时代以来一直是当地的，并且没有受到干扰，那么它们就代表了对安的列斯群岛最早移民文化的不同寻常的见解。由于发现了更完整的灵长类动物和树懒遗骸，改进的系统发育分析成为可能，这将有助于检验关于这些哺乳动物是如何以及何时进入大安的列斯群岛的假设。地球化学分析将提供有关这些脊椎动物生活的当地环境条件的第一个直接证据。这项研究还对多米尼加人博物馆作出重大贡献，并协助培训工作人员保存在这种情况下保存的骨头。这项研究是加强考古和古生物遗迹脆弱地位的努力的一部分，并为加强对该遗址和类似遗址的保护措施提供进一步的支持。

A multidisciplinary survey of the Padre Nuestro cavern, southeastern Dominican Republic is the goal of this research. The cavern is underwater, but its floor was dry at the time of emplacement of extinct vertebrates and archaeological materials. Primates, rodents and sloths originated in South America and had arrived in the Antilles by the early Miocene, but absence of other typical Miocene South American taxa like carnivorous marsupials, armadillos, and notoungulates suggests that a connection between the continent and the islands were intermittent and subject to biotic or cross-water filters. Padre Nuestro contains thousands of loose bones on its floor that so far include many species of native cavioid rodents and several kinds of ground sloths. A skull of an Antillean primate has already been recovered and conserved. A particular emphasis will be the reassessment of the phylogenetic patterns of the primates and sloths using the new material because this contributes important information to the debate over the biogeographic origins of the Antillean fauna: did vertebrates arrive by a filter or via long-distance over-water sweepstakes dispersal and were there a single or multiple dispersal events? In addition, the cavern contains archaeological material that will improve knowledge of the timing and causes of extinction of sloths and primates in Hispaniola, in particular whether extinction was caused by climate change or was induced by the arrival of humans. If the archaeological remains can be shown to be autochthonous and undisturbed since the time of cave flooding, they represent an unusual insight about the culture of some of the earliest immigrants to the Antilles. The improved phylogenetic analyses made possible by the recovery of more complete remains of primates and sloths will allow tests of hypotheses regarding how and when these mammals entered the Greater Antilles. Geochemical analyses will provide the first direct evidence about the local environmental conditions under which these vertebrates lived. The research also contributes significantly to the Museo del Hombre Dominican and assists in training of staff in the conservation of bone preserved under these circumstances. The research is part of the effort to strengthen the fragile status of archaeological and paleontological remains and provide further support for stronger protection measures of this and similar sites.