Palaeontological pilot survey of unstudied sediments in the Chiwondo Beds, Northern Malawi

通过这个拟议的项目，我们计划在马拉维北部含有古人类的“奇旺多岩层”中的上更新世沉积矿床中进行古生物勘探。在为期三周的野外活动中，我们的目标是对三个以前没有被研究过的地理受限地区的沉积表面进行系统的调查，以恢复更多的脊椎动物化石遗骸，并评估进一步开展古生物野外调查的潜力。该项目的内容集中在东南部非洲马拉维裂谷在上更新世-更新世作为东部和南部非洲动物群之间的扩张和迁徙走廊的作用。鉴于东非著名的古人类遗址和南非之间的特殊地理位置，广泛的地质时期，以及罕见的人和人属遗骸已经得到证实，全面了解沉积层序中的生物地层学是很重要的。由于与东非裂谷系统中的其他已知地点相比，奇旺多床沉积物的化石密度相当低，我们计划在目标三周内探索尽可能多的沉积物表面。这将使我们能够全面地描绘从西部裂谷肩部到今天的马拉维湖岸边的化石潜力。主要目标是在其地层背景下增加可识别的脊椎动物化石的数量，以便即使是更古老的沉积单元2的动物群，也可以与更知名的来自单元3的更年轻的奇原多海底动物群相比。我们只关注以前从未系统研究过的奇原多海底的区域。在拟议的研究区域中暴露的沉积物预计将包含更多的脊椎动物化石遗骸，这些化石来自3.75 Ma之前的地层最古老的沉积物。更全面地了解奇万多海床2单元的大型哺乳动物的动物群组成，对于更详细地追踪环境条件向稍微干燥的栖息地的时间变化至关重要，正如上新世晚期所证明的那样，大约在2.5 Ma左右首次出现了人属。

With the proposed project we plan a paleontological exploration in Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary deposits in the hominin-bearing "Chiwondo Beds" in northern Malawi. During a three-week field campaign, we aim to conduct a systematic survey of the sedimentary surface in three geographically restricted areas that have not been studied before, in order to recover additional fossil vertebrate remains and assess the potential for further paleontological fieldwork.The content of the project focuses on the role of the southeastern African Malawi Rift as an expansion and migration corridor between eastern and southern African faunas in the Plio-Pleistocene during the emergence of the genus Homo.Given the particular geographic location between the famous hominin sites in eastern Africa and South Africa, the extensive geologic time period, and the rare Homo and Paranthropus remains already attested, a comprehensive understanding of the biostratigraphy in the sedimentary sequence is important. Because the Chiwondo Beds sediments have a fairly low fossil density compared to other known sites in the East African Rift System, we plan to explore as much sediment surface as possible in the targeted three weeks. This will allow us to draw a comprehensive picture of the fossil potential from the western rift shoulder to the shore of present-day Lake Malawi.The main goal is to increase the number of identifiable vertebrate fossils in their stratigraphic context to allow faunal reconstruction of even the older sedimentary Unit 2 compared to the better known younger Chiwondo Beds faunas from Unit 3 sediments.We focus exclusively on areas of the Chiwondo Beds that have never been systematically studied before. Sediments exposed in the proposed study areas are expected to contain additional fossil vertebrate remains from the stratigraphically oldest deposits older than 3.75 Ma. A more complete knowledge of the large mammal faunal composition of Unit 2 of the Chiwondo Beds is essential to more detailed trace the temporal changes in environmental conditions toward somewhat drier habitats, as evidenced in the later Pliocene with the first appearance of the genus Homo around 2.5 Ma.