Doctoral Dissertation Research: The biogeography and behavioral ecology of Pliocene hominins: A macroecological perspective

最近对早期人类祖先（古人类）的发现突出了理解气候如何塑造早期古人类进化和行为的重要性。该项目将研究320万至360万年前非洲东部的人类分布和行为是如何被当地栖息地塑造的。有关现代植物和动物多样性的数据将与同一地区古代环境的古生态数据相结合。数据源的创新组合将有助于以更细的时间间隔重建古代生态。该项目的更广泛影响包括研究生培训，通过博物馆和课程开发进行公共科学宣传，以及支持STEM科学中代表性不足的少数民族学生。在这个项目中，目前的植被（土壤碳酸盐的同位素）和化石哺乳动物数据库将标准化，使古代栖息地和相关的哺乳动物群落之间的分析连接，并深入了解人类生态位的变化。研究人员将联合收割机理论从多个学科，如景观考古学，宏观生态学和埋藏学，并进行分析实验，连接古人类的环境代理（如土壤同位素）在适当的时间和空间尺度。在上新世中期（360万至320万年前），当饮食行为发生重大变化，创新行为可能发生时，如在阿法尔盆地使用石器，所提出的生态关系尤其重要。该项目的数据将通过使用开源数据库进行管理，以促进未来生态代理和数据的整合，该数据库将由co-PI使用PostgreSQL软件创建。共同PI与Koobi Fora Field School和乔治华盛顿大学（GWU）的教育项目进化合作，为学前班到大学的学生开发课程，同时也是青年赋权科学家的共同开发者（是的！）GWU计划通过指导将代表性不足的少数民族学生带入STEM科学。

Recent discoveries of early human ancestors (hominins) highlight the importance of understanding how climate shaped early hominin evolution and behavior. This project will study the ways in which hominin distributions and behavior were shaped by local habitats between 3.2 and 3.6 million years ago in eastern Africa. Data about modern plant and animal diversity will be integrated with paleoecological data for the ancient environment of the same area. The innovative combination of data sources will help to reconstruct ancient ecology at finer-grained time intervals. Broader impacts of the project include graduate training, public science outreach through museums and curriculum development, and support of underrepresented minority students in the STEM sciences. In this project, current vegetation (isotopes from soil carbonates) and fossil mammal databases will be standardized to make analytical connections between ancient habitats and their associated mammal communities and to gain insight into variation of the hominin ecological niche. The investigators will combine theory from multiple disciplines, such as landscape archaeology, macroecology, and taphonomy, and conduct analytical experiments to connect hominins to environmental proxies (such as soil isotopes) at an appropriate temporal and spatial scale. The proposed ecological relationships are especially important to test in the mid-Pliocene (between 3.6 and 3.2 million years ago), when dietary behavior shifted significantly and innovative behaviors may have occurred, such as the use of stone tools in the Afar basin. Data from the project will be curated to promote the integration of future ecological proxies and data through the use of an open source database that will be created by the co-PI, using PostgreSQL software. The co-PI collaborates with the Koobi Fora Field School and the Evolution in Education program at the George Washington University (GWU) to develop curricula for students from pre-school to university levels, and is also the co-developer of the Young Empowered Scientists (YES!) program at GWU to bring underrepresented, minority students into STEM sciences through mentoring.