Resolving the timescale of south-central African palaeoenvironments and their impact on human behaviour and evolution

解决非洲中南部古环境的时间尺度及其对人类行为和进化的影响

• 批准号: 2272554
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of York
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2019 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2272554
• 关键词: Resolving; timescale; south; central; African

Timing is everything: accurate dating of the geological record is essential to understand our planet's history, but beyond the limit of radiocarbon dating (~50,000 years) material becomes difficult to date. The Quaternary period (the last ~2.6 million years) provides a rich palaeoenvironmental record vital for testing the usefulness of climate models to predict future climate change. However it is severely underused because of a lack of chronology; recent advances in amino acid dating can overcome this impasse.Amino acid geochronology uses the time-dependent breakdown of proteins in biominerals (e.g. shells, teeth). Our recent breakthrough has been to isolate entrapped proteins, which behave as a closed system, neither losing products nor gaining reactants over >30 million years. This provides an extremely powerful dating tool for terrestrial deposits. By focusing on a range of different biominerals (molluscs, ostracods, enamel etc.), this PhD will exploit these advances to develop a chronology for southern Africa, a region with a rich but understudied Pleistocene palaeoclimate record and a critical area for a full understanding of human evolution. Stretching beyond the range of the other dating methods available, this will enable the palaeoenvironmental record to be constrained, also allowing us to study the interactions between humans and the changing environment.Objectives1) Test biominerals for intra-crystalline protein degradation (IcPD) through high temperature kinetic experiments.2) Test fossils in deposits of well-constrained age. 3) Develop an IcPD dating framework for southern-central Africa.4) Using this, develop a regional palaeoenvironmental record for the Pleistocene, providing the context for faunal evolution and behavioural changes in this region.The project (based in the NERC-recognised amino acid facility at the University of York) will involve multidisciplinary training; the student will gain hands-on expertise in state-of-the-art techniques for analytical method development as well as experience of fieldwork and sampling approaches. The supervisory team combines expertise in geochronology and analytical chemistry (Penkman; York), southern African Palaeolithic archaeology and palaeoenvironments (Barham; Liverpool) & palaeoecological reconstructions using multiple fossil proxies (White, Natural History Museum). Training in techniques will include chromatography, dating methods, palaeoclimate, malacology and Palaeolithic archaeology.

时间就是一切：准确测定地质记录的年代对于了解地球的历史至关重要，但超出放射性碳年代测定（约 50,000 年）限制的物质就很难测定年代。第四纪时期（最近约 260 万年）提供了丰富的古环境记录，对于测试气候模型预测未来气候变化的有效性至关重要。然而，由于缺乏年代顺序，它的使用严重不足。氨基酸年代测定的最新进展可以克服这一僵局。氨基酸地质年代学利用生物矿物（例如贝壳、牙齿）中蛋白质的时间依赖性分解。我们最近的突破是分离捕获的蛋白质，这些蛋白质表现为一个封闭的系统，在超过 3000 万年的时间里既不会损失产物，也不会获得反应物。这为陆地沉积提供了极其强大的测年工具。通过关注一系列不同的生物矿物（软体动物、介形类、牙釉质等），该博士将利用这些进展来制定南部非洲的年表，该地区拥有丰富但尚未得到充分研究的更新世古气候记录，也是全面了解人类进化的关键领域。这超出了其他可用测年方法的范围，这将使古环境记录受到限制，也使我们能够研究人类与不断变化的环境之间的相互作用。目标1)通过高温动力学实验测试生物矿物的晶内蛋白质降解(IcPD)。2)测试年龄受到良好限制的沉积物中的化石。 3) 为非洲中南部开发一个 IcPD 测年框架。4) 利用该框架，开发更新世的区域古环境记录，为该地区的动物进化和行为变化提供背景。该项目（以约克大学 NERC 认可的氨基酸设施为基础）将涉及多学科培训；学生将获得分析方法开发的最先进技术的实践专业知识以及实地工作和抽样方法的经验。监督团队结合了地质年代学和分析化学（彭克曼；约克）、南部非洲旧石器时代考古学和古环境（巴勒姆；利物浦）以及使用多个化石代理进行古生态重建（怀特，自然历史博物馆）方面的专业知识。技术培训将包括色谱法、年代测定方法、古气候、软体动物学和旧石器时代考古学。