Reconstructing Pleistocene ungulate migration in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem

有蹄类动物的大规模迁徙历来主导着非洲草原。今天，由于各种人为影响，大规模迁徙仅限于离散的受保护景观。大塞伦盖蒂-马拉生态系统(GSME)(肯尼亚/坦桑尼亚)主办了塞伦盖蒂迁徙，其中200万头蓝角羚、平原斑马和汤姆森瞪羚在生态系统中循环迁徙，以应对淡水和饲料质量和数量的季节性变化。有蹄类动物的迁徙被假设为与中新世中期C4草原扩张同时演化了几次，但GSME内大规模迁徙的起源和迁徙物种对化石动物群组合的贡献却知之甚少。该项目将利用化石牙齿的稳定锶、碳和氧同位素分析，描述通常从更新世人类遗址，即奥杜瓦伊峡谷发现的有蹄类动物的迁徙策略。将构建一系列物种的迁徙行为的同位素框架，这些物种在化石记录中具有等价物。化石同位素数据将使用大量可获得的、已公布的全球和地方古气候和古环境数据进行背景分析。将探讨对更新世气候波动的迁徙反应，对目前对古环境和古生态的理解的影响，以及在未来气候变化情景下对塞伦盖蒂迁徙的威胁。

Ungulate mass migrations have historically dominated African grasslands. Today, due to a variety of anthropogenic impacts, mass migrations are restricted to discrete protected landscapes. The Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem (GSME) (Kenya/Tanzania) hosts the Serengeti Migration, wherein two million blue wildebeest, plains zebra, and Thomson's gazelle migrate cyclically across the ecosystem in response to seasonal variability in freshwater and forage quality and quantity. Ungulate migrations are hypothesised to have evolved several times concurrent with mid-Miocene C4 grassland expansion, but the origin of mass migration within the GSME and the contribution of migratory species to fossil faunal assemblages are poorly understood. This project will characterise mobility strategies of ungulates commonly recovered from Pleistocene hominin sites, namely Olduvai Gorge, using stable strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope analyses of fossil teeth. An isotopic framework for migratory behaviour from a range of species that have equivalents represented in the fossil record will be constructed. Fossil isotope data will be contextualised using the vast available published global and local palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data. Migratory responses to climate fluctuations across the Pleistocene, implications for current understanding of the palaeoenvironment and palaeoecology, and threats to the Serengeti Migration under future climate change scenarios will be explored.