Doctoral Dissertation Research: Local Responses to Global Environmental Shifts During the Emergence of Hominins

地质和古生物学研究提供了对过去事件的深入研究，可以让科学家和决策者了解环境模式的长期后果。科学家和公众特别感兴趣的是环境变化和人类进化之间的关系。这个博士论文项目研究了环境的变化如何在人类的两个主要谱系——傍人（Paranthropus）和人属（Homo）的起源中发挥作用。通过研究这些早期人类生活的环境是如何变化的，从而导致了类人猿和人属的分化，该项目为环境变化在局部范围内的影响提供了重要证据，并深入了解了刺激新人类谱系出现的进化驱动因素。该项目的一个关键目标是培养一名STEM领域的女研究生，并为其他女性和来自代表性不足群体的学生创造机会，让他们通过指导和研究获得从事科学研究的第一手经验。它还促进国际研究合作和学术联系以及公共科学推广和参与。类人猿和人属谱系的起源和分化与区域和地方层面的深刻环境变化和不稳定时期相吻合。为了了解可能促成这一重大进化事件的因素，确定这两个新谱系出现的环境背景是很重要的。然而，在人类进化的这一关键时期，全球和地方尺度环境变化之间关系的性质仍然没有得到很好的解决。本项目的目标是通过(1)利用中磨损、微磨损和稳定同位素分析重建当地古环境，探讨可能驱动傍人与人属出现的潜在环境因素；(2)对比区域内其他样点的古环境数据，记录局部环境变化模式；(3)研究环境变化与人类及其他哺乳动物灭绝和物种形成的关系。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。

Geological and paleontological research provides a deep-time perspective of past events that can inform scientists and policymakers about the long-term consequences of environmental patterns. Of particular interest to both scientists and the general public is the relationship between environmental change and hominin evolution. This doctoral dissertation project investigates how shifts in the environment may have played a role in the origins of two major lineages of hominins, Paranthropus and Homo. By examining how the environments in which these early hominins lived changed leading up to the divergence of Paranthropus and Homo, this project provides important evidence of the impact of environment variability on a local scale, as well as insight into the evolutionary drivers that spurred the emergence of new hominin lineages. A critical goal of this project is to train a female graduate student in STEM and to create opportunities for other women and students from underrepresented groups to gain first-hand experience in conducting science through mentorship and research. It also fosters international research collaborations and academic linkages and public science outreach and engagement. The origin and divergence of the Paranthropus and Homo lineages coincides with a period of profound environmental variability and instability at the regional and local levels. To understand the contributing factors that may have precipitated this major evolutionary event, it is important to determine the environmental context in which the two new lineages emerged. However, the nature of the relationship between global and local-scale environmental change remains poorly resolved during this critical period of human evolution. The goal of this project is to investigate the underlying environmental factors potentially driving the emergence of Paranthropus and Homo by (1) using mesowear, microwear and stable isotope analyses to reconstruct the local paleoenvironment; (2) comparing paleoenvironmental data from other sites in the region to document patterns of local environmental change; and (3) investigating the relationship between environmental change and the extinction and speciation of hominins and other mammals.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.