Hominin footprints, fossils, and their context in the early Pleistocene of Koobi Fora, Kenya

Brian里士满和他的同事们获得了这个古人类学领域和实验室项目的主要目标是：1）恢复更多新发现的可能属于灭绝物种鲍氏傍人的人类骨骼化石，并对化石解剖进行详细分析，以提高我们对人类上肢和手的进化的理解; 2）在肯尼亚的遗址挖掘、记录和分析多层人类足迹化石; 3）进行调查和挖掘，在目标地区发现新的足迹层，并记录遗址的古环境和考古背景。 化石人类骨骼和足迹是与人类进化有关的最稀有和最具信息量的发现之一。最近的研究发现，这两件东西，连同沿着的石器和被屠宰过的骨头，都是在肯尼亚伊莱雷特附近一个151 - 153万年前的遗址（FwJj 14）中发现的。 研究小组还在肯尼亚Koobi Fora的GaJi 10遗址附近发现了140 - 150万年前的化石足迹层。 该奖项资助野外工作，以恢复更多的化石人类骨骼和足迹，以及他们的古代生态环境的数据。 这些发现提供了一个独特的机会来测试长期存在的假设，提出新的问题，并大大提高我们对人类上肢和手部解剖学，行走步态，古代人类行为的进化的理解，以及150万年前生活在图尔卡纳湖地区的几个灭绝人类物种的环境背景，这是人类进化史上的一个关键时期。该项目通过促进跨学科和国际合作，提高少数民族在美国古人类学中的代表性，并改善非洲学者的培训。 研究人员将从该项目中获取数据，包括肯尼亚国家博物馆（NMK）用于策展的3D足迹地图，以及其他学者直接或通过在线访问的数据库（例如，图尔卡纳数据库中的动物化石数据，以及史密森尼国家博物馆人类起源计划网站上的3D数字足迹表面）。 许多化石足迹表面是脆弱的，容易受到快速侵蚀;我们的项目将记录，并在适当的时候，收集和保存在NMK这些不可替代的资源。 该项目将加强国际（美国-肯尼亚-南非）和美国内部的机构间（GW-JHU-Smithsonian-Rutgers）合作。 此外，该项目非常认真地对待其培训来自代表性不足群体的美国学生的承诺（例如，非洲裔美国人，西班牙裔）在古人类学，以及来自肯尼亚和南非的研究生。

The main goals of this paleoanthropology field and lab project, awarded to Brian Richmond and colleagues, are to 1) recover more of a newly-discovered associated fossil human skeleton possibly belonging to the extinct species Paranthropus boisei, and perform detailed analyses of the fossil anatomy to improve our understanding of the evolution of the human upper limb and hand; 2) excavate, document, and analyze multiple layers of fossil human footprints at sites in Kenya; 3) conduct surveys and excavations to find new footprint layers in targeted areas and to document the paleo-environmental and archeological contexts of the sites. Fossil human skeletons and footprints are among the rarest and most informative discoveries relating to human evolution. Recent research has unearthed both, along with stone tools and fossilized butchered bones, at a site complex (FwJj14) dating to 1.51-1.53 million years ago near Ileret, Kenya. The research team also discovered fossilized footprint layers, ranging in age from 1.4-1.5 million years ago, near site GaJi10 at Koobi Fora, Kenya. This award funds fieldwork to recover more of the fossil human skeleton and footprints, and data on their ancient ecological setting. These discoveries offer a unique opportunity to test long-standing hypotheses, ask novel questions, and dramatically improve our understanding of the evolution of human upper limb and hand anatomy, walking gait, ancient human behavior, and the environmental contexts of several extinct human species living in the Lake Turkana area 1.5 million years ago, a critical time in human evolutionary history.This project offers a number of measurable broader impacts for the scientific community by fostering interdisciplinary and international collaboration, improving minority representation in paleoanthropology in the US and improving training of African scholars.. The researchers will make data from this project, including 3D maps of footprints available to the National Museum of Kenya (NMK) for curation, and to other scholars directly and via online-accessible databases (e.g., fossil animal data in the Turkana Database, and 3D digital footprint surfaces on the Human Origins Program website at the Smithsonian's NMNH). Many fossil footprint surfaces are fragile and subject to rapid erosion; our project will document and, when appropriate, collect and preserve at the NMK these irreplaceable resources. This project will strengthen international (US-Kenya-South Africa) and, within the US, inter-institutional (GW-JHU-Smithsonian-Rutgers) collaborations. Furthermore, this project takes very seriously its commitment to train US students from groups underrepresented (e.g., African-American, Hispanic) in paleoanthropology, as well as graduate students from Kenya and South Africa.