INSPIRE: Forging new connections among mammalian evolution, environmental change, and tectonics during the Eocene.

INSPIRE：在始新世哺乳动物进化、环境变化和构造之间建立新的联系.K.Christopher Beard和Michael Taylor，堪萨斯大学，EAR-1543684ABSTRACT本INSPIRE项目由地球科学局(GEO)地球科学部的沉积地质学和古生物学计划、社会、行为和经济局(SBE)行为和认知科学部的生物人类学计划、SBE多学科活动办公室、国际科学与工程办公室(OIISE)和国际综合活动办公室(OIIA)INSPIRE计划共同资助。这个项目调查了地球环境的巨大变化如何影响了西南亚和邻近地区早期灵长类和其他哺乳动物的进化。来自堪萨斯大学和美国、土耳其和法国合作机构的一个国际科学家团队将探索始新世(约4,000万-4,500万年前)化石遗址，其中包括非洲和欧亚哺乳动物。这些始新世哺乳动物生活在一个由显着的气候和地质变化造成的环境中。该团队将探索板块构造、环境变化以及本土哺乳动物群体和早期类人猿(现代猴子、类人猿和人类的灵长类祖先)等首次殖民非洲的“入侵物种”的进化之间的潜在联系。早期的类人猿和其他亚洲哺乳动物可能是为了到达非洲而穿越西南亚的，这一假说将通过PI的工作进行验证。该项目将加强美国和土耳其科学家和学生之间的科学合作和教育机会，同时从根本上促进对早期哺乳动物进化的了解，包括我们在非洲、欧洲和亚洲之间的十字路口上的类人灵长类祖先。致力于该项目的多学科团队将在现场收集新的数据，并在实验室进行详细的调查，目的是：(1)记录和描述始新世哺乳动物动物群，以了解单个类群的系统发育和生物地理关系，以及整个动物群是如何组合的；(2)限制冈丹南微盘附着到土耳其的时间和过程以及它们与那里始新世哺乳动物动物群的关系；(3)建立始新世环境及其对当地动物和环境的影响的多指标重建；(4)评估土耳其作为早期亚洲类人灵长类动物和其他哺乳动物殖民非洲的潜在途径的作用；以及(5)对哺乳动物化石记录进行宏观进化分析，以调查物理环境与动物扩散和动物更替模式之间的可预测联系。

INSPIRE: Forging new connections among mammalian evolution, environmental change, and tectonics during the Eocene.K. Christopher Beard and Michael TaylorUniversity of Kansas, EAR-1543684ABSTRACTThis INSPIRE project is jointly funded by the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program in the Earth Sciences Division of the Geosciences (GEO) Directorate, the Biological Anthropology Program in the Division of Behavorial and Cognitive Sciences of the Social, Behavorial and Economic (SBE) Directorate, the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), and the Office of International and Integrative Activities (OIIA) INSPIRE program. This project investigates how dramatic changes in the Earth's environment impacted the evolution of early primates and other mammals in southwest Asia and adjacent regions. An international team of scientists from the University of Kansas and partner institutions in the USA, Turkey and France will explore Eocene (~40-45 million years old) fossil sites that include both African and Eurasian mammals. These Eocene mammals lived in an environment wrought by remarkable climatic and geologic changes. The team will explore potential links between plate tectonics, environmental change, and the evolution of both native mammal groups and "invasive species" such as early anthropoids (primate ancestors of modern monkeys, apes and humans) that were colonizing Africa for the first time. Early anthropoids and other Asian mammals may have traversed southwest Asia in order to get to Africa, a hypothesis that will be tested by the PIs work. The project will strengthen scientific cooperation and educational opportunities between American and Turkish scientists and students, while fundamentally advancing the understanding of early mammalian evolution, including our own anthropoid primate ancestors, at the crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia.The multidisciplinary team working on this project will collect new data in the field and perform detailed investigations in the lab aimed at: (1) documenting and characterizing the Eocene mammal fauna in order to understand the phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships of individual taxa and how the entire fauna was assembled; (2) constraining the timing and processes of accretion of Gondwanan microplates onto Turkey and their relationship to the Eocene mammal faunas there; (3) establishing a multi-proxy reconstruction of Eocene environments and its impact on the local fauna and environment; (4) assessing the potential role of Turkey as a pathway for the colonization of Africa by early Asian anthropoid primates and other mammals; and (5) conducting macroevolutionary analyses of the mammalian fossil record to investigate predictable links between the physical environment and patterns of faunal dispersal and faunal turnover.