High-Risk Exploratory Research: Phreatic-Zone Excavation and Integrated Site Analysis in Southwestern Madagascar.

该项目将使用一种新开发的方法从沼泽和其他被洪水淹没的地点挖掘化石。调查人员发现，通过在挖掘坑的角落放置一口大直径的井，并使用轻型高压水泵将地下水抽到同一含水层的不同部分，就有可能从地下水位以前无法触及的地点提取化石。这类遗址特别有利于化石保存，这种方法将允许提取骨骼、软组织、古代DNA、植物微化石和宏化石等许多其他类型的信息，并最大限度地控制深度和背景。这对该地区的水资源没有影响，因为水被回流到含水层。如果这种方法在马达加斯加西南部的古老湖床上有效，它将使科学家能够调查巨型狐猴、象鸟和其他史前马达加斯加大型而不寻常的动物明显迅速灭绝的环境，并重建它们的生存条件。这种类型的工作将允许对这些物种灭绝原因的五个相互竞争的假说进行测试，许多科学家认为这些物种灭绝是由史前人类以某种方式造成的。完善这项技术将为史前景观研究开辟新的途径，并有助于将古生态学直接应用于生态恢复目标。

This project will use a newly-developed approach for excavating fossils from bogs and other flooded sites. The investigators have found that by placing a large-diameter well in the corner of an excavation pit and pumping groundwater to a different part of the same aquifer with lightweight, high-pressure water pumps, it is possible to extract fossils from sites previously out of reach under the water table. Such sites are especially favorable to fossil preservation, and this method will allow the extraction of bones, soft tissue, ancient DNA, plant microfossils and macrofossils, and many other types of information with a maximum amount of control over the depth and context. There is no impact on the area's water resources, because the water is returned to the aquifer. If this approach works in the ancient lake-beds of southwestern Madagascar, it will permit the scientists to investigate the circumstances surrounding the apparently rapid extinction of the giant lemurs, elephant birds, and other large and unusual animals of prehistoric Madagascar, and to reconstruct the conditions under which they lived. Work of this type will allow the testing of five competing hypotheses for the cause of these extinctions, which many scientists believe were caused in some way by prehistoric humans. Perfecting this technique will open new avenues for research on prehistoric landscapes and facilitate the direct application of paleoecology to the goals of ecological restoration.