Paleoprimatology in sub-equatorial Africa: Views from the Oligocene Nsungwe Formation of Tanzania

该项目通过对非洲赤道以下唯一的渐新世陆生脊椎动物组合(坦桑尼亚)的实地研究，考察了灵长类的进化史。研究人员此前在该地区发现了新的链状灵长类和类人灵长类动物。这项研究涉及俄亥俄大学和坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆大学之间的国际合作。该项目将为俄亥俄大学的三名研究生和三名本科生提供进行动手实验室和实地研究的培训机会。坦桑尼亚学生和当地参与者将参与研究。结果将在学术出版物和大众媒体上传播。该项目的科学推广活动包括互动网站、多语言博物馆展品和K-12学习活动。了解灵长类动物和其他生物如何应对环境变化对科学家和普通公众来说都是一个及时的话题。非洲的新生代记录了环境随时间变化的非凡而深刻的记录。这项研究项目提供了化石记录中以前采样不足的时间段的新数据，首次记录了赤道以南非洲的渐新世哺乳动物。这些发现包括填补灵长类化石记录空白的新物种。在这项工作之前，完全缺乏这段时间的数据阻碍了我们对全球气候模式和陆地结构的变化如何随着时间的推移影响动物组成的理解。在渐新世边界附近，非洲陆地群落发生了戏剧性的变化，非洲阿拉伯大陆和欧亚大陆之间的碰撞导致许多常驻生物被入侵的移民物种取代。这些变化对非洲常驻灵长类动物的捕食和竞争的平衡产生了深远的影响。该项目有三个主要目标：1)描述坦桑尼亚晚渐新世Nsungwe组的新动物群的特征；2)对该地区其他信息丰富的地点进行密集采样；3)进行地质分析，以记录化石地点的准确年龄和古生态环境。该项目的数据将把北非渐新世早期的动物群与整个非洲大陆中新世地区已知的丰富数据联系起来，并将有助于检验有关该大陆动荡的生物变化历史的假说。

This project examines primate evolutionary history through field research in the only Oligocene terrestrial vertebrate assemblage in Africa below the equator (Tanzania). The researchers have previously recovered novel strepsirrhine and anthropoid primates from this region. This research involves international collaboration between Ohio University and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The project will provide training opportunities for three graduate and three undergraduate students from Ohio University to conduct hands-on laboratory and field research. Research will involve Tanzanian students and local participants. Results will be disseminated in scholarly publications and popular media. Science outreach for the project includes interactive websites, multilingual museum exhibits, and K-12 learning activities.Understanding how primates and other organisms respond to environmental change is a timely topic for scientists and the general public alike. The Cenozoic Era of Africa records a remarkable and deep record of environmental change through time. This research project provides new data from a previously undersampled interval in the fossil record, for the first time documenting Oligocene mammals from Africa south of the equator. Included among these finds are new species that fill a gap in the primate fossil record. Prior to this work, a complete lack of data from this interval has hampered our understanding of how changes in global climate patterns and landmass configuration affected faunal composition through time. Near the Oligo-Miocene boundary, dramatic changes occurred in African terrestrial communities, when a collision between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian landmasses resulted in replacement of many of the resident organisms by invading immigrant species. These changes had profound implications for the balance of predation and competition for Africa's resident primates. This project has three main goals: 1) to characterize the new fauna from the late Oligocene Nsungwe Formation of Tanzania, 2) to intensively sample for additional informative localities in the region, and 3) to conduct geological analyses to document the precise age and paleoecological setting of fossiliferous localities. Data from this project will bridge early Oligocene northern African faunas with the wealth of data known from Miocene localities across the continent, and will help to test hypotheses regarding the continent's tumultuous history of biotic change.