Doctoral Dissertation Research: Genetic and Isotopic Investigations of Human Population Origins and Dispersals in Island Settings

博士论文研究：岛屿环境中人类起源和扩散的遗传和同位素研究

• 批准号: 1848513
• 负责人: Scott Fitzpatrick
• 金额: $ 2.48万
• 依托单位: University of Oregon Eugene
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-02-15 至 2021-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1848513&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Genetic; Isotopic

Modern humans have dispersed and settled nearly every region on the planet. The complex timing, movements, and interactions of populations, cultures, and technology in the past are an important part of our human story. This doctoral dissertation project combines genetic and geochemical analyses of human skeletal material from the Chelechol ra Orrak site in Palau, western Micronesia, to investigate prehistoric colonization of an island setting during one of the most widespread and rapid dispersals in human history. Despite this being the last major geographical region to be colonized by humans, information regarding the timing, direction, and origins of settlement in many respects remains unclear. This research will also make broader contributions to local, national, and global communities through undergraduate training and mentorship at the University of Oregon; community involvement and outreach through public talks and the distribution of comics about aDNA in archaeology in Palau; and the implementation of a learning module that teaches the scientific method, archaeological fieldwork, and genetic techniques to underrepresented elementary and middle school students in Oregon.The investigators will analyze human ancient DNA (aDNA) and geochemical mobility data for Micronesia and provide critical baseline information for future isotopic and genetic research in the region. The objective of this research is to investigate the origins of prehistoric Palauans on a regional scale and subsequent local human mobility within the archipelago following settlement. While linguistic, computer modeling, and biodistance studies have resulted in hypotheses identifying broad general regions of Micronesian population origins, numerous questions regarding the relationship of early Micronesians to other regional populations, and a more specific area of origin still remain. In generating aDNA data for western Micronesia, this project will place early Palauans in a regional framework to examine broader scale genetic relationships. Examination of mobility via strontium (87Sr/ 86Sr) and lead (206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, 208Pb/204Pb) isotope analysis from human remains--in conjunction with biological and geological samples taken from locations across the archipelago--will help to identify where individuals buried at Chelechol ra Orrak may have been residing during their lifetime and shed light on inter-island mobility during the earliest phases of settlement in Palau.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

现代人类已经分散并定居在地球上几乎每一个地区。在过去，人口、文化和技术的复杂时间、运动和相互作用是我们人类故事的重要组成部分。本博士论文项目结合了对密克罗尼西亚西部帕劳的Chelechol ra Orrak遗址的人类骨骼材料的遗传和地球化学分析，以调查人类历史上最广泛和最迅速的分散之一期间岛屿环境的史前殖民。尽管这是人类殖民的最后一个主要地理区域，但在许多方面，关于定居的时间、方向和起源的信息仍然不清楚。这项研究还将通过俄勒冈大学的本科生培训和指导，为地方、国家和全球社区做出更广泛的贡献；通过公开演讲和分发关于帕劳考古中的aDNA的漫画进行社区参与和外联；以及实施一个学习模块，向俄勒冈州代表性不足的中小学生教授科学方法、考古实地考察和遗传技术。研究人员将分析密克罗尼西亚的人类古代DNA （aDNA）和地球化学迁移数据，并为该地区未来的同位素和遗传研究提供关键的基线信息。这项研究的目的是在区域范围内调查史前帕劳人的起源，以及定居后群岛内当地人类的流动性。虽然语言学、计算机建模和生物距离研究已经产生了确定密克罗尼西亚人口起源广泛区域的假设，但关于早期密克罗尼西亚人与其他区域人口的关系以及更具体的起源区域的许多问题仍然存在。在为西密克罗尼西亚产生dna数据的过程中，该项目将把早期的帕劳人置于一个区域框架中，以检查更广泛的遗传关系。通过对人类遗骸进行锶（87Sr/ 86Sr）和铅（206Pb/204Pb, 207Pb/204Pb, 208Pb/204Pb）同位素分析，结合从群岛各地采集的生物和地质样本，对迁移性进行检查，将有助于确定Chelechol ra Orrak埋葬的个体在其一生中可能居住的地方，并阐明帕劳定居最早阶段的岛屿间迁移。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。