Developing and Testing New Geospatial Approaches in Paleoanthropology

古生物学家今天寻找化石的方法与我们的前辈自19世纪该学科诞生以来所采用的方法几乎相同。他们研究地质和地形图，以便找到可能发现某个年代化石的地方，然后他们走很远的路，用眼睛在地面上搜寻被侵蚀的化石的痕迹。因此，许多重要的古生物遗址确实是偶然发现的，机会和运气继续在许多古生物探险的成功或失败中发挥着重要作用。这项跨学科研究利用最先进的成像方法和遥感和空间科学的分析技术来开发和测试新的预测模型，以确定古生物学家应该在该领域集中精力的地方，以便最大限度地提高他们在寻找生产化石的地方的效率。研究人员将使用Landsat图像以及高分辨率商业卫星图像来确定怀俄明州大分水岭盆地始新世矿床已知生产区域的光谱特征。将测试一些分析方法，以确定生产地点的光谱特征，包括人工神经网络分析和基于地理对象的图像分析。研究小组将利用两个夏季的实地考察季节，在地面上搜索预测有可能存在化石的地区，以统计评估预测模型的成功。国际研究团队包括来自脊椎动物古生物学、古人类学、地质学和地理学的专家，他们的目标是促进地理和空间科学新方法在古人类学和古生物学中的应用。更广泛的影响包括对本科生和研究生进行跨学科的实地人类学培训，以及开发基于网络的教育和推广工具。

Paleontologists search for fossils today in very nearly the same ways that our predecessors have since the beginnings of the discipline in the nineteenth century. They study geological and topographic maps in order to locate places where fossils of a certain age may be found, and then they walk long distances with their eyes scouring the ground for hints of eroding fossils. As a result, many important paleontological sites are literally stumbled upon, and chance and luck continue to play a large role in the success or failure of many paleontological expeditions.This interdisciplinary research utilizes state-of-the-art imaging methods and analytical techniques from remote sensing and the spatial sciences to develop and test new predictive models for determining where paleontologists should concentrate their efforts in the field in order to maximize their effectiveness at finding productive fossil-bearing localities. The investigators will use Landsat imagery as well as high-resolution, commercially available satellite imagery to determine the spectral characteristics of known productive localities in the Eocene deposits of Wyoming's Great Divide Basin. A number of analytical approaches will be tested for their ability to identify the spectral signatures of productive localities, including artificial neural network analysis and geographic object-based image analysis. The research team will spend two summer field seasons searching those areas on the ground that are predicted to have a high potential to be fossil-bearing, in order to statistically evaluate the success of the predictive models.The international research team includes specialists from vertebrate paleontology, paleoanthropology, geology and geography, and their aim is to stimulate the application of new approaches from the geographic and spatial sciences to the sciences of paleoanthropology and paleontology. Broader impacts include the training of undergraduate and graduate students in this cross-disciplinary approach to field-based anthropological science, and development of web-based tools for education and outreach.