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

这个古人类领域和实验室项目授予了Brian Richmond和他的同事，主要目标是：1)恢复更多新发现的可能属于灭绝物种Paranthropus boisei的相关化石骨骼，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)挖掘、记录和分析肯尼亚遗址的多层人类足迹化石；3)进行调查和挖掘，在目标区域发现新的足迹层，并记录遗址的古环境和考古背景。人类骨骼化石和脚印是与人类进化有关的最罕见、最具信息量的发现之一。最近的研究在肯尼亚Ileret附近的一个遗址群（FwJj14）中发现了这两种工具，以及石器和被屠宰的骨骼化石，这些遗址可追溯到1.51- 153万年前。研究小组还在肯尼亚Koobi Fora的GaJi10遗址附近发现了距今140万至150万年前的脚印化石层。该奖项为田野调查工作提供资金，以恢复更多的人类骨骼化石和脚印，以及他们古代生态环境的数据。这些发现提供了一个独特的机会来检验长期存在的假设，提出新的问题，并极大地提高了我们对人类上肢和手部解剖结构、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的人类物种的环境背景，这是人类进化史上的关键时刻。该项目通过促进跨学科和国际合作，改善美国古人类学的少数民族代表性和改善对非洲学者的培训，为科学界提供了许多可衡量的更广泛的影响。研究人员将从这个项目中获取数据，包括足迹的3D地图，供肯尼亚国家博物馆（NMK）管理，并直接通过在线数据库（例如图尔卡纳数据库中的动物化石数据，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）提供给其他学者。许多化石足迹表面很脆弱，容易受到快速侵蚀；我们的项目将记录并在适当的时候在国家公园收集和保存这些不可替代的资源。该项目将加强国际合作（美国-肯尼亚-南非）以及美国内部机构间合作（gw - jhu -史密森尼-罗格斯大学）。此外，该项目非常重视培训来自古人类学代表性不足群体（如非洲裔美国人、西班牙裔美国人）的美国学生，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.