Exploration for Cenozoic Fossil-Bearing Deposits in the Atbara Valley, Sudan

在初步调查取得成功后，将要求对一项为期3年的实地调查项目提供支持，该项目的目标是苏丹东南部上Atbara河和Setit河沿岸的中晚更新世化石矿床序列。我们最初的DFG和国家地理资助的调查于2018年1月进行，结果在上阿特巴拉流域约200公里和厚达50米的冲积沉积物记录中发现了许多新的化石遗址，并收集了约160种大型哺乳动物化石标本。大量的石器证明了古人类在这片土地上很活跃，而且很可能也会以化石的形式被发现。我们新发现的一些化石遗址可能比该地区以前已知的沉积物更古老，也更年轻，因此有可能提供过去100万年来进化和气候变化的现场记录。与上新世-更新世相比，这一时期在非洲的记录中通常没有得到充分的探索，而苏丹的化石、考古和地质序列可以与经典的东非裂谷遗址相媲美。请提供支助，资助三个实地季节和分析所得数据。主要问题包括现代非洲哺乳动物生态学的进化，从阿舍利时代到中石器时代的技术过渡，以及尼罗河流域的进化阶段。

After a successful initial survey, support is requested to develop a reconnaissance grant into a 3-year fieldwork project targeting a sequence of Middle to Late Pleistocene fossiliferous deposits along the Upper Atbara and Setit Rivers in southeastern Sudan. Our initial DFG and National Geographic-funded survey took place in January 2018 and resulted in the discovery of numerous new fossil sites across some 200 km and in up to a 50m-thick record of alluvial sediments of the Upper Atbara drainage basin, and the collection of some 160 fossil specimens of large mammals. Hominins were active on the landscape as evidenced by abundant stone tools, and they are probably to be found as fossils as well. Some of our newly discovered fossil sites may be older and younger than previously known deposits in the area, and therefore have the potential to provide an in situ record of evolution and climate change over the last 1 million years. This time period is generally underexplored in the African record (in comparison to the Plio-Pleistocene) and such a fossil, archaeological, and geological sequence in Sudan could rival that of the classic eastern African Rift sites. Support is requested to fund three field seasons and for the analysis of resulting data. Main questions include the evolution of modern African mammal ecology, the technological transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age, and phases of evolution of the Nile River watershed.