Renewed Paleoanthropological Research in the Laetoli Area, Tanzania

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The paleoanthropological study of human evolution is critical for documenting the origins and evolutionary steps that gave rise to our own species. This area of research is of profound interest to the scientific community and to the general public because of the enduring fascination with human origins. One of the most significant contributions to understanding human evolution is the discovery of important new fossils. These provide crucial information to document the various stages of human evolution, but equally importantly provide contextual evidence to explain how and why major evolutionary events took place. This project will renew paleontological and geological investigations at Laetoli, one of the most important paleoanthropological sites in Africa, with the goal of contributing new evidence towards a better understanding of the early stages of human evolution. The main goal of the research is to address several critical issues in human evolution: (1) exploration of the Lower Laetolil Beds (3.85 million to older than 5.0 million years ago) has the potential to yield early hominins (extinct members of the human evolutionary lineage) that could contribute important new evidence on the diversity and evolutionary relationships of the earliest representatives of the human lineage; (2) new hominin fossils from the Upper Laetolil Beds (3.6-3.85 million years ago) will lead to a better understanding of the anatomy, paleobiology and relationships of the early hominin species, Australopithecus afarensis; (3) additional hominins from the Upper Ndolanya Beds (2.66 million years ago) will add to our limited appreciation of Paranthropus aethiopicus, the earliest member of an extinct side-branch of the human lineage, and offer important clues to understanding the timing and environmental factors associated with the extinction of Australopithecus and the divergence of Paranthropus and Homo (the genus to which humans belong); and (4) a detailed assessment of the paleoecology will allow a better understanding of the habitat preferences and ecological context of the Laetoli hominins, as well as providing a building block in a broader assessment of habitat diversity and environmental change in East Africa. The project provides unique opportunities for paleoanthropological training of students, research and educational infrastructural support in Tanzania, important opportunities for US researchers to extend their network of academic links to scientists and institutions in different disciplines and countries, and provides a vehicle for the promotion of the study of human evolution to the broader public.