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

苏丹阿特巴拉谷新生代化石矿床勘探

• 批准号: 387794796
• 负责人: Dr. Faysal Bibi, Ph.D.
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Museum für Naturkunde - Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung (MfN)
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2016-12-31 至 2019-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/387794796?language=en
• 关键词: Exploration; Cenozoic; Fossil; Bearing; Deposits

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.

在成功进行初步调查后，请求提供支助，将一笔勘察赠款发展成一个为期3年的实地工作项目，目标是苏丹东南部阿特巴拉河上游和塞提特河沿着中更新世至晚更新世的含汞矿床序列。我们最初的DFG和国家地理资助的调查于2018年1月进行，结果发现了许多新的化石遗址，横跨约200公里，并在上阿特巴拉流域盆地的冲积沉积物中发现了厚达50米的记录，并收集了约160个大型哺乳动物化石标本。人类在这片土地上非常活跃，这一点可以从丰富的石器工具中得到证明，而且他们也可能以化石的形式被发现。我们新发现的一些化石地点可能比该地区以前已知的沉积物更古老和更年轻，因此有可能提供过去100万年来进化和气候变化的原位记录。这段时间在非洲记录中通常未被充分探索（与上新世-更新世相比），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。请求提供支助，以资助三个实地调查季节，并分析由此产生的数据。主要问题包括现代非洲哺乳动物生态学的演变，从阿舍利到中石器时代的技术过渡，以及尼罗河流域的演变阶段。