Collaborative Research: Hominoid origins in a unique paleocommunity

这个项目推进了对灵长类进化中一个关键时期的认识，在这个时期，猿类和人类的祖先被认为是第一次从其他灵长类动物谱系中分化出来。一个由古人类学、古生物学和地质学专家组成的小组正在从一个化石遗址进行挖掘和分析化石和古环境数据，以便更好地了解灵长类动物适应和生态多样性的环境背景。该项目为科学家和学生提供了宝贵的研究和培训机会，包括来自STEM中代表性不足的群体的个人，并为当地社区和公众提供了有关人类起源和气候变化的科学宣传机会。一个非凡的新灵长类化石遗址为获得渐新世人科动物起源的新数据提供了机会。该项目的主要目标是描述该遗址的物种多样性和古环境背景。核心假设是，最早的茎类人科动物出现在独特的生态群落中，与中新世晚期的人科动物辐射非常不同。古人类学家、地质学家和古生物学家组成的团队通过对已经获得的数百块化石和地质样本进行额外的实地考察和分析来开展这项工作。研究的目标有三个方面：(1)通过分析功能差异来表征中渐新世人猿和尾猿的古生物差异；(2)建立一个健全的地质框架，将当前和未来的化石位置整合到一个良好的约束年表中；(3)通过动物群落的分类、功能和系统发育组成来表征其多样性。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。

This project advances knowledge about a crucial time in primate evolution when the ancestors of apes and humans are thought to have first diverged from other primate lines. A team of experts in paleoanthropology, paleontology and geology are conducting excavations and analyzing fossils and paleoenvironmental data from a fossil-bearing site in order to better understand the environmental context for primate adaptations and ecological diversity. The project offers invaluable research and training opportunities to scientists and students, including individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM, and provides opportunities for science outreach about human origins and climate change with local communities and the general public. An extraordinary new fossil primate site provides an opportunity to obtain new data related to the origins of the hominoids during the Oligocene. The primary objective of the project is to characterize the species diversity and paleoenvironmental context for the site. The central hypothesis is that the earliest stem hominoids arose within unique ecological communities that were very unlike those of the later Miocene hominoid radiations. The team of paleoanthropologists, geologists, and paleontologists carry out this work through additional fieldwork and analysis of the hundreds of fossils and geological samples already obtained. The goals are three-fold: (1) characterize the paleobiological disparity between hominoids and cercopithecoids in the mid-Oligocene by analyzing functional disparity; (2) build out a robust geologic framework that integrates current and future fossil localities into a well constrained chronology; and (3) characterize the mammalian community diversity by contextualizing its taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic composition.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.