Doctoral Dissertation Research: Faunal dental microwear texture for fine-scale reconstruction of hominin paleoenvironments

博士论文研究：用于精细重建古人类古环境的动物牙齿微磨损纹理

• 批准号: 1731554
• 负责人: Peter Ungar
• 金额: $ 1.95万
• 依托单位: University of Arkansas
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1731554&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Faunal; dental

Many significant hominin and archaeological sites represent complex, mosaic paleoenvironments that require high spatial resolution to be properly characterized. This study presents a new approach to fine-scale environmental reconstruction at these sites using tooth microwear in rodents, which have small home ranges and are found in abundance in different habitats. The project will collect data on rodent dental microwear, and will combine microwear analysis with ongoing and independent rodent ecological research. These analyses will result in a detailed association of microwear texture patterns with diet and environmental data that will help us better reconstruct paleohabitats using fossil rodent teeth. This award provides research support to a female graduate student from an EPSCoR state. It also provides research opportunities for undergraduates and fosters international collaboration between the University of Arkansas and the National Museum of South Africa.Research on rodent dental microwear textures has been limited because of a lack of information about habitat or diet for specific individuals in a study sample. This project will attempt to address this problem by associating incisor and molar microwear texture patterns with stomach contents of those same individuals, as well as their documented habitat floral composition and atmospheric dust load. The project focuses on three core questions: (1) Will individual differences in diet be reflected in differences in molar microwear textures? (2) What effect does habitat openness and associated dust level have on incisor microwear? and (3) Do incisor and molar microwear patterns reflect the floral composition and dust loads of rodent microhabitats? The co-PI will study rodents from an on-going environmental assessment project at the Kolomela Mine in the Central Free State of South Africa to answer these questions. She will obtain information on the dust levels and floral composition at each rodent capture site. Diet details will be derived through stomach content analysis of each specimen. These data will then be associated with standard quantitative descriptors that result from incisor and molar dental microwear texture analysis.

许多重要的古人类和考古遗址代表了复杂的、镶嵌的古环境，需要高空间分辨率才能正确表征。 这项研究提出了一种新的方法，在这些网站上使用牙齿微磨损的啮齿动物，有小的家庭范围，并在不同的栖息地丰富的环境重建。 该项目将收集啮齿动物牙齿微磨损的数据，并将联合收割机微磨损分析与正在进行的独立啮齿动物生态研究相结合。这些分析将导致微磨损纹理模式与饮食和环境数据的详细关联，这将有助于我们更好地利用啮齿动物牙齿化石重建古栖息地。该奖项为来自EPSCoR州的一名女研究生提供研究支持。 它还为本科生提供研究机会，并促进阿肯色州大学和南非国家博物馆之间的国际合作。由于缺乏研究样本中特定个体的栖息地或饮食信息，对啮齿动物牙齿微磨损纹理的研究受到限制。该项目将试图通过将门牙和磨牙微磨损纹理模式与这些相同个体的胃内容物以及记录的栖息地花卉组成和大气灰尘负荷相关联来解决这个问题。该项目集中在三个核心问题：（1）饮食的个体差异是否会反映在磨牙微磨损纹理的差异上？(2)栖息地的开放性和相关的灰尘水平对门牙微磨损有什么影响？门齿和臼齿的微磨损模式是否反映了啮齿动物微生境的植物组成和灰尘负荷？ 共同主要研究者将研究南非中部自由州科洛梅拉矿正在进行的环境评估项目中的啮齿动物，以回答这些问题。 她会在每个捕捉鼠患的地点收集有关尘埃水平及植物组成的资料。 将通过每例标本的胃内容物分析获得饲料详情。 然后将这些数据与来自切牙和磨牙牙齿微磨损纹理分析的标准定量描述符相关联。