U.S.-Australia Cooperative Research: Dating Hominid Migration and Quaternary Environmental Change Through Racemization of Amino Acids in Ostrich Eggshells

该奖项将支持科罗拉多大学博尔德分校的吉福德·米勒博士和澳大利亚国立大学的艾伦·R·奇瓦斯博士之间的合作研究。这项研究是为了将氨基酸外消旋技术应用于鸵鸟蛋壳，这是一种新的、非常成功的测年技术，即研究蛋白质从活性物质到非活性物质的变化。这项技术只有在这些材料从内部环境到外部环境没有损失的情况下才能使用；在本研究中，鸵鸟蛋壳的巨大密度保护了这种损失。这项研究将产生关于原始人在亚洲和澳大利亚迁徙的时间和模式的高度重复性的日期，以及相对较短的地质时期内气候变化的信息。由于消旋化可以应用于太旧而不能用放射性碳测年确定年代的材料，该项目提供了一个独特的机会来确定35,000和更早时间范围内的活动的日期。该项目代表了澳大利亚和美国研究人员之间的出色合作。这家澳大利亚集团将在从化石中分离单个氨基酸方面贡献专业知识，提供一流的实验室设施，并为采集样本提供现场支持。米勒博士将贡献他在氨基酸外消旋约会技术方面的广泛专业知识。这显然是澳大利亚和美国科学界在确定人类迁徙和相关气候变化年龄方面的重要工作。

This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Dr. Allan R. Chivas of the Australian National University. The research is to apply to ostrich eggshells a new and highly successful varient of the dating technique, amino acid racemization, that is, investigation of protein changes from active to inactive materials. The technique can only be used when there is no loss of these materials from internal to external environments; the great density of ostrich eggshells protects such loss in this research. Highly reproducible dates on the timing and patterns of the migration of hominids across Asia and into Australia, and information on climatic changes over relatively short periods of geological time will result from this research. As racemization can be applied to materials which are too old to be dated by radiocarbon dating, the project provides a unique opportunity to date activities in the 35,000 and older time range. The project represents excellent collaboration between the Australian and U.S. researchers. The Australian group will contribute expertise in isolating individual amino acids from fossils, excellent laboratory facilities, and field support for collecting samples. Dr. Miller will contribute his already-extensive expertise in the technique of amino acid racemization for dating. This is clearly important work of benefit to both the Australian and U.S. scientific communities on dating the ages of human migration and associated climate change.