Collaborative Research: An Examination of Behavioral and Biological Change in an Extended Chronological Context

协作研究：在扩展的时间顺序背景下检查行为和生物变化

• 批准号: 1623884
• 负责人: Lindsay McHenry
• 金额: $ 7.51万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1623884&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Examination; Behavioral; Biological

Drs. Jackson Njau of the Indiana University, Bloomington and Lindsay McHenry of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, along with colleagues from the US, Europe, and Tanzania, seek to understand the relationships between Earth system history and human ("hominin") evolution by investigating the environmental contexts in which early ancestors of humans evolved. Previous researchers have postulated that climate-driven environmental changes on the African continent strongly influenced such evolution over the last several million years. Whether (and how) humans and other species adapt to changing climate is a scientific subject that has captivated public interest. Archaeology is well placed to link climate and environmental history to hominin records by integrating paleoenvironmental datasets archived in the sediments of ancient lakes near paleoanthropological sites. In addition to generating new scientific data, this project will open new interdisciplinary research frontiers across the earth sciences and anthropology that will impact the scientific debates on human origins research. The team will investigate how and when climate and environmental forces influenced adaptation during the critical times of human evolution. Do changes in morphology, innovation, sociality, and behavioral traits reflect changes in the local ecology, such as habitat, food, predation pressure, and the availability of resources on the landscape? These questions will be addressed by linking the detailed paleoclimatic record recovered from drilled sediment cores to excavated archeological sites. Four recently acquired cores from the ancient lake at Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania, covering over 2 million years of sedimentation, will be compared to key nearby archeological layers that document records of evolving hominin species and changes in stone tool technologies. Lake sediments archive climate history through time, therefore providing an unprecedented paleoclimatic record of the paleoanthropological material from the prehistoric Olduvai lake basin. These paleoenvironmental data will inform models of hominin land use behaviors and elucidate how climatic change drove hominin adaptations in morphology and cultural behaviors that allowed them to better adapt to variable environmental conditions. Using the composition of volcanic ash layers and detailed examination of the sedimentary units preserved in both cores and outcrops, the team will examine whether times of significant environmental change (as determined in the cores) correspond to times of significant cultural or biological change (in the outcrops and excavations). This project will provide research opportunities and training to a diverse group of American and Tanzanian scholars, provide educational outreach opportunities, and foster international collaboration and understanding.

印第安纳大学的Jackson Njau博士、威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校的Bloomington和Lindsay McHenry博士，以及来自美国、欧洲和坦桑尼亚的同事，通过研究人类早期祖先进化的环境背景，试图了解地球系统历史和人类(原始人)进化之间的关系。之前的研究人员假设，在过去的几百万年里，非洲大陆气候驱动的环境变化强烈地影响了这种进化。人类和其他物种是否(以及如何)适应气候变化是一个吸引了公众兴趣的科学课题。考古学通过整合保存在古人类遗址附近的古代湖泊沉积物中的古环境数据集，很好地将气候和环境历史与人类记录联系起来。除了产生新的科学数据外，该项目还将在地球科学和人类学领域开辟新的跨学科研究前沿，这将影响关于人类起源研究的科学辩论。该团队将调查气候和环境力量在人类进化的关键时期如何以及何时影响适应。形态、创新、社会性和行为特征的变化是否反映了当地生态的变化，如栖息地、食物、捕食压力和景观资源的可用性？这些问题将通过将从钻探的沉积物岩心中恢复的详细的古气候记录与挖掘的考古遗址联系起来来解决。最近从坦桑尼亚奥杜瓦伊峡谷的古湖中获得的四个岩芯，覆盖了200多万年的沉积，将与附近的关键考古层进行比较，这些考古层记录了人类物种的进化和石器技术的变化。湖泊沉积物通过时间记录了气候历史，因此提供了史前奥杜瓦湖盆地古人类学资料的史无前例的古气候记录。这些古环境数据将为原始人土地使用行为模型提供信息，并阐明气候变化如何推动原始人在形态和文化行为上的适应，使他们能够更好地适应不同的环境条件。利用火山灰层的组成和对岩心和露头中保存的沉积单元的详细检查，该小组将检查重大环境变化的时间(在岩心中确定)是否与重大的文化或生物变化的时间相对应(在露头和挖掘中)。该项目将为不同的美国和坦桑尼亚学者提供研究机会和培训，提供教育推广机会，并促进国际合作和理解。