Collaborative Research: Joint Paleontological and Archeological Investigations of Modern Human Origins

现代人的起源是人类学研究的中心问题之一。这个项目调查了一个非同寻常的新化石遗址，产生了关于人类进化史上这一关键时期的新信息，包括直系祖先的遗骸，他们制造的工具，以及他们生活的环境。该项目汇集了一个国际合作团队，采用最新的方法收集和分析化石和考古数据。该团队将通过培训学生进行分析和实地方法来加强科学合作。该项目的成果将通过学校参观和科学博览会公开分享。所有数据和结果将以数字方式与国际社会共享，包括科学和公众，使世界各地的人们能够获得我们共同起源的证据。最近的发现表明，现代人的起源比最初认为的要复杂得多，但有限的化石和考古记录掩盖了现代人确切的出现时间、地点、方式和原因。一个新发现的遗址在迄今为止发现的人类遗骸数量和它保存的关于过去环境的非凡数据方面都是独一无二的。到目前为止，这个遗址已经发现了一个早期现代人的完整头骨和部分骨架，还有其他几个人的遗骸，以及大量的工具。该遗址还保存了大量与这些早期人类生活在一起的动物化石，提供了关于他们环境和生态的关键数据。这个遗址与其他著名的原始人遗址在地质上是相关的，这使得我们有机会比较早期现代人在同一地质时期同一生态系统不同环境中的行为。调查人员计划在几个野外季节收集和分析人类和其他化石，收集和研究丰富的工具，并记录该遗址的地质情况。一些化石将被数字化重建，由此产生的3D模型将与考古和动物遗骸数据一起公开共享。田野调查工作完成后，一个国际调查团队将被聚集在一起分析解剖、环境、地质和考古数据，以提供综合分析并进一步推进关于现代人起源的知识。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The origin of modern humans is one of the central issues in the anthropological sciences. This project investigates an extraordinary new fossil site yielding novel information about this critical time-period in human evolutionary history, including remains of immediate ancestors, the tools they made, and the environments in which they lived. The project brings together an international collaborative team to employ the latest methods in collecting and analyzing fossil and archaeological data. The team will strengthen scientific collaborations by training students in analytical and field methods. The results of the project will be shared publicly through school visits and science fairs. All data and results will be shared digitally with the international community, both scientific and public, allowing people from around the world access to evidence of our shared origins. Recent discoveries suggest that modern human origins are more complex than originally thought, but the limited fossil and archaeological record has obscured exactly when, where, how, and why modern humans appeared. A newly discovered site is unique in both the number of human remains recovered to date and the extraordinary data on the past environments it preserves. So far, this site has yielded complete skull and partial skeleton of an early modern human, remains of several other individuals, and a large number of tools. The site also preserves an abundance of fossils of animals that lived alongside these early humans, providing key data on their environment and ecology. This site is geologically correlated with other famous hominin sites permitting an extraordinary opportunity to compare early modern human behavior across different environments of the same past ecosystem during the same geological time-period. The investigators plan on several field seasons to collect and analyze human and other fossils, gather and study the abundant tools, and document the geology of the site. Some fossils will be reconstructed digitally, and the resulting 3D models will be shared publicly along with data on archaeological and animal remains. After fieldwork is complete, an international team of investigators will be brought together to analyze the anatomical, environmental, geological, and archaeological data to provide integrated analyses and further advance knowledge about the origins of modern humans.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.