RAPID: Salvage Recovery of Miocene Fossil Primates and Other Vertebrates from Localities Threatened by Hydroelectric Dam Projects along the Rio Santa Cruz, Argentina

该研究将在阿根廷南部（圣克鲁斯省）的Río Santa Cruz沿岸进行。该项目至关重要，而且时间敏感，因为正在建设的两座水电站大坝将淹没待研究的化石所在地。2012年，沿江开始进行坝址准备和基础设施改善。因此，从这一地区恢复标本可以挽救那些很快就会被科学遗忘的信息。圣克鲁斯省因其中新世早期的脊椎动物化石而闻名于世，这些化石的年龄范围从1900万到1500万年前不等，并以其独特的能力记录了南美洲（SA）类人猿灵长类动物的进化和适应，也被称为platyrrhines或New World monkeys，它们构成了热带南美洲现代生物多样性的重要组成部分（17属130种）。这些化石遗址位于圣克鲁斯组，记录了一段被称为中新世中期气候最佳（MMCO）的气候变暖时期的开始，这说明它们出现在当前分布范围以南20°纬度的地方。这些遗址包含了最完整的platyrrhines化石，从它们第一次出现在大陆上大约26 Ma到全新世。这些完整的化石所揭示的信息使科学家们对早期鸭嘴龙的生物学、生态学和系统发育有了前所未有的了解。要解决的科学问题具有广泛的古人类学和古生物学意义，包括核心的具体目标：1)阐明正在进行的关于新世界猴子现存动物家族的古代争论，并了解哺乳动物群落结构和它们生活的环境；2)脊椎动物对气候变化的响应分析。这项研究将继续美国和阿根廷科学家在灵长类动物学、地层学、无脊椎动物和脊椎动物古生物学以及地球化学等不同领域的长期合作。它促进对学生和专业人员的持续培训，特别是对一名美国研究生和几名阿根廷学生进行古灵长类学和脊椎动物古生物学的实地培训。

The research to be conducted is the along the Río Santa Cruz in far southern Argentina (Santa Cruz Province). The project is critical and time sensitive because construction is beginning on two hydroelectric dams that will inundate the fossil localities to be studied. Dam site preparation and infrastructure improvement were begun along the river in 2012. Recovery of specimens from this region therefore salvages information that will otherwise soon be lost to science. Santa Cruz Province is world-famous for its Early Miocene vertebrate fossils, which range in age from about 19 to 15 million years ago, and for its unique capacity to document the evolution and adaptations of South American (SA) anthropoid primates, also called platyrrhines or New World monkeys, that make up a significant fraction of the modern biodiversity of tropical South America (17 genera and 130 species). The fossil sites occur in the Santa Cruz Formation and document the onset of a period of climate warming called the mid-Miocene Climate Optimum (MMCO), which accounts for their occurrence 20° of latitude south of their current distributional limits. The sites contain the most complete fossil platyrrhines from their first known appearance on the continent at about 26 Ma until the Holocene. The information that has been revealed by such complete fossils has given scientists unparalleled insights into early platyrrhine biology, ecology, and phylogeny. The scientific questions to be addressed are of broad paleoanthropological and paleontological significance, and include the core specific aims of 1) the illumination of ongoing debates about the antiquity of the living zoological families of New World monkeys and an understanding of the mammalian community structure and environments in which they lived; and 2) the analysis of the responses of vertebrates to the climatic changes of the MMCO. The conduct of the research will continue a longstanding collaboration between US and Argentinian scientists from disparate fields of primatology, stratigraphy, invertebrate and vertebrate paleontology, and geochemistry. It fosters the continued training of students and professionals including, especially, the field training of a US graduate student and several Argentinian students in paleoprimatology and vertebrate paleontology.