Preparation of Two Taphonomic Reference Collections for Deposit in the National Taphonomic Reference Collection, Smithsonian

准备两个埋藏学参考藏品以存放在史密森国家埋藏学参考藏品中

• 批准号: 1145777
• 负责人: Diane Gifford-Gonzalez
• 金额: $ 4.58万
• 依托单位: University of California-Santa Cruz
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-10-01 至 2015-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1145777&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Preparation; Two; Taphonomic; Reference; Collections

Taphonomy, the study of how organisms fossilize, has emerged as pivotal to reconstructing ancient human lifeways, through analysis of animal bones from archaeological sites. Using taphonomic analysis, paleoanthropologists are able to decipher the source of bone accumulations at sites and provide evidence relevant to assessment of the hunting and scavenging activities of early hominins, their diet, and their utilization of skills and technologies when they migrated out of Africa and into Eurasia.Taphonomy studies ancient bones to infer the processes that produced modifications to them, but this could never proceed without well-documented, modern reference specimens that definitively link unique bone modifications to the specific agents inflicting them. This project will accomplish preparation of nearly 4000 irreplaceable taphonomic specimens for curation in the Smithsonian Institution's new National Taphonomic Reference Collection (NTRC). These collections, accumulated by investigators who pioneered experimental, ethno-archaeological, and landscape-scale taphonomic research in North America and Africa, cannot be reconstituted, given current legal, political, economic, and ecological circumstances. Researchers from three continents have already utilized the collections to study bone modifications, and the value of the collections to research and teaching will continue and strengthen following their curation at the Smithsonian; the NTRC is the first taphonomy repository globally and will be a magnet for US and international paleoanthropological and paleontological researchers. The investigators will prepare the collections to meet the NTRC's strict standards for documentation and pest prophylaxis at the federally-compliant facilities at University of California, Santa Cruz. Intensive involvement of undergraduate students through the university's internship program will provide invaluable training and hands-on experience with essential biological collections in contributing to US federal research infrastructure development.

埋藏学是一门研究生物体如何化石化的学科，通过对考古遗址中的动物骨骼进行分析，已成为重建古代人类生活方式的关键。通过埋藏学分析，古人类学家能够破译遗址中骨骼堆积的来源，并提供与评估早期古人类的狩猎和食腐活动、他们的饮食以及他们从非洲迁徙到欧亚大陆时对技能和技术的利用相关的证据。埋藏学研究古代骨骼，以推断对它们产生改变的过程，但如果没有充分记录的现代参考资料，这永远不可能进行。 样本将独特的骨骼改变与造成它们的特定因素明确联系起来。该项目将完成近 4000 个不可替代的埋藏学标本的准备工作，以供史密森学会新的国家埋藏学参考收藏 (NTRC) 中的收藏。 这些藏品是由北美和非洲实验、民族考古和景观规模埋藏学研究先驱的研究人员积累的，鉴于当前的法律、政治、经济和生态环境，无法重建这些藏品。 来自三大洲的研究人员已经利用这些藏品来研究骨骼修饰，这些藏品对研究和教学的价值将在史密森尼博物馆的策展后继续并加强； NTRC 是全球第一个埋藏学资料库，将吸引美国和国际古人类学和古生物学研究人员。调查人员将在加州大学圣克鲁斯分校的联邦合规设施中准备收集品，以满足 NTRC 在文件记录和害虫预防方面的严格标准。 本科生通过大学实习计划的深入参与将为美国联邦研究基础设施的发展提供宝贵的培训和基本生物收藏的实践经验。