U.S.-Egypt Cooperative Research: Geology, Paleontology and Biogeography of the North African Early Miocene

描述：该奖项旨在支持北卡罗来纳州温斯顿-塞勒姆维克森林大学人类学系Ellen Miller博士和埃及开罗大学地质系Ahmed Barkooky博士之间的合作研究。目的是通过在埃及西撒哈拉中新世早期的瓦迪莫赫拉和西瓦绿洲进行地质和古生物工作，加强我们对北非哺乳动物和灵长类动物进化的了解。莫赫拉更为人所知的是该遗址保存了一系列已灭绝的哺乳动物，包括东半球早期的一只猴子和两个谱系分化后不久的一只猿猴。人们对西瓦的了解要少得多。虽然在莫赫拉和西瓦发现了哺乳动物化石，但对莫赫拉和西瓦的古环境几乎一无所知，对莫赫拉或西瓦哺乳动物本身的系统学和古生物学知之甚少。莫赫拉和西瓦位于非洲，但在物理上比东非更接近欧亚大陆，这为观察中新世早期欧亚和非洲哺乳动物之间接触的性质和程度提供了一个独特的视角。然而，来自北非地区的数据从未被完全纳入对哺乳动物生物地理学的更大解释中。该项目有可能为我们从对解释这些事件至关重要的时间段和地理区域了解高等灵长类起源和新近纪哺乳动物的扩散模式做出重大贡献。私人投资机构的联合研究专长适合于破译莫赫拉和西瓦的沉积学和地层学(El-Barkooky)，并利用这些地区的生物地层学来检验关于哺乳动物和灵长类动物进化的假说(米勒)。范围和广泛影响：协作将产生重大影响。首先是通过在美国和埃及的研究人员之间建立专业的工作伙伴关系。这些团队的结构确保了完全整合的、多学科的专业知识，而不会出现冗员。此外，该项目还为三名学生(一名美国人，两名埃及人)提供培训。埃及脊椎动物古生物学家的培训具有特别重要的意义，因为埃及公民能够维持这一科学分支在埃及的发展至关重要。到目前为止，埃及脊椎动物古生物学家非常罕见，尽管埃及拥有世界上已知的一些最重要的化石地点。此外，莫赫拉和西瓦的工作对于那些试图在西部沙漠的石油和天然气勘探等长期发展和经济利益与通过确定和保护具有特殊科学、文化遗产和旅游价值的地区而获得的发展收益之间取得平衡的机构具有特别重要的意义。这一项目产生的所有结果将由私人投资机构和特约考察队成员联合公布。该项目得到了美国-埃及联合基金计划的支持，该计划为两国的科学家和工程师提供资助，以开展这些合作活动。

0403472MillerDescription: This award is to support a cooperative research between Dr. Ellen Miller, Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Dr. Ahmed Barkooky, Geology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. The goal is to enhance our understanding of North African mammalian and primate evolution, by conducting geological and paleontological work at Wadi Moghra and Siwa Oasis, early Miocene, Western Sahara, Egypt. Moghra is far better known as the site preserves an array of extinct mammals, including an early Old World monkey and an ape shortly after the divergence of the two lineages. Much less is known about Siwa. While the occurrence of fossil mammals at Moghra and Siwa has been documented, next to nothing is known about the paleoenvironment of either Moghra or Siwa, and little is known about the systematics and paleobiology of the Moghra or Siwa mammals themselves. The location of Moghra and Siwa, in Africa but physically closer to Eurasia than East Africa, provides a unique perspective from which to view the nature and extent of contact between early Miocene Eurasian and African mammals. However, data from North African localities has never been fully integrated into larger interpretations of mammalian biogeography. The project has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of higher primate origins and Neogene mammalian dispersal patterns, from a time period and geographic region that are critical for interpreting these events. The joint research expertise of the PIs are suited to the combined task of deciphering the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Moghra and Siwa (El-Barkooky), and using the biostratigraphy of these localities to test hypotheses about mammalian and primate evolution (Miller). Scope and broad Impact: The collaboration will have significant impacts. First is by the establishment of a professional working partnership between American and Egyptian researchers. The structure of the teams secures a fully integrated, multi-disciplinary expertise without redundancy. In addition, the project provides training for three students (one American, two Egyptian). The training of Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists is of particular importance because it is critical that Egyptian citizens be able to sustain the development of this branch of science in Egypt. Until now, Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists have been very rare, in spite of the fact that Egypt contains some of the most important fossil localities known anywhere in the world. Still further, work at Moghra and Siwa holds particular relevance for those institutions attempting to balance long term developmental and economic interests, such as oil and gas exploration in the Western Desert, with the developmental gains that come from identifying and preserving areas of particular scientific, cultural heritage and touristic value. All results stemming from this project will be published jointly by the PIs and contributing expedition members. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.