Geology and Paleontology of the Woranso-Mille, Afar, Ethiopia

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，Woranso-Mille古人类研究小组，由dr。Yohannes Haile-Selassie和Bruce Latimer将在埃塞俄比亚中部阿法尔地区进行为期三年的实地调查研究。该项目本质上是多学科的，该小组由来自埃塞俄比亚和美国的古生物学、地质学、地质年代学和孢粉学领域的研究人员组成。该小组的主要目标是完成2004年发现的一具400万年前的早期人类祖先的部分骨骼的挖掘工作，并在接下来的几年里收集更多的化石标本，以帮助更好地了解早期人类的进化。过去三十年的新化石发现大大扩展了我们对人类进化史的认识。然而，早期人科动物的化石记录还远未完成，特别是在360万年前之前的时期。因此，关于比南方古猿阿法种更古老的早期人科动物的时空分布信息仍然不足。Woranso-Mille团队最近发现的化石包括大约12块早期人类化石和600块脊椎动物化石，这些化石代表了不同的分类群，估计可以追溯到380万到400万年前，这是人类进化研究的一个关键时期。目标是找回部分骨骼的更多身体部位，并从人类进化中一个相对缺乏记录的时期收集更多的早期原始人化石。这将有助于更好地了解大约400万年前早期人类祖先的生物学和生理学，并弄清从南方古猿到阿法南猿的明显转变。在这项工作中要解决的研究问题的性质需要收集大量的原始野外数据（化石及其背景信息），并进行地质和地质年代学工作，以完善所收集材料的年龄和地层学。一旦这些工作完成，就可以通过与其他相关的早期人类物种进行比较，对新发现的化石进行详细分析。因此，该项目的主要任务是：1)完成400万年前部分古人类骨骼的发掘；2)在已知化石区进行脊椎动物化石的深入调查和收集；3)为已知地点建立地质年代和地层框架；4)继续探索研究区域内未调查的地区，发现新的古人类研究资源。Woranso-Mille古人类学项目将产生大量新的化石数据，这些数据对于更好地了解早期人类的起源非常必要。这项研究的智力价值在于它将成功地发现更多的脊椎动物，特别是原始人化石，获得关于早期原始人解剖结构和身体比例的新数据，并揭示他们在大约400万年前的关键时期的地质和环境背景。这项研究更广泛的影响包括产生新的化石数据，这对更好地理解人类进化的早期阶段具有重要意义，包括生物学、生理学和身体比例；研究南方古猿向阿法南猿的明显过渡；通过出版物和定期报告向公众传达结果。该项目有一个长期计划，培训来自美国和埃塞俄比亚大学的研究生和本科生，他们最终将为新项目开发研究问题。

With National Science Foundation support, The Woranso-Mille Paleoanthropological team, co-led by Drs. Yohannes Haile-Selassie and Bruce Latimer, will conduct fieldwork research in the Central Afar region of Ethiopia for three years. The project is multidisciplinary in nature and the team is composed of researchers in the fields of paleontology, geology, geochronology, and palynology from Ethiopia and United States. The team primarily aims to complete excavation of a spectacular 4-million-year-old partial skeleton of an early human ancestor discovered in 2004 and, in the years to follow, collect additional fossil specimens to help better understand early human evolution. New fossil discoveries from the last three decades have substantially extended our knowledge of human evolutionary history. The early hominid fossil record, however, is still far from being complete, particularly for the time period prior to 3.6 million years ago. Therefore, information on the temporal and spatial distribution of early hominids older than Australopithecus afarensis remains inadequate. Recent fossil discoveries made by the Woranso-Mille team include about 12 early hominid fossils and 600 vertebrate fossils representing diverse taxa estimated to date back to 3.8 - 4.0 million years, a crucial time period in human evolutionary studies. The goal is to retrieve more body parts of the partial skeleton and collect additional early hominid fossils from a relatively poorly documented period in human evolution. This will help better understand the biology and physiology of early human ancestors around 4 million years ago and figure out the apparent transition from Australopithecus anamensis to Australopithecus afarensis. The nature of the research questions to be addressed in this work requires collecting substantial primary field data (fossils and their contextual information) and conducting geological and geochronological work to refine the age and stratigraphy of the collected materials. Once these are accomplished, detailed analysis of the newly recovered fossils is possible by comparing them with other relevant early hominid species. Therefore, primary tasks of the project are: 1) complete the excavation of the 4-million-year-old partial hominid skeleton, 2) conduct intensive investigation and collection of vertebrate fossils from known fossiliferous areas, 3) establish geochronological and stratigraphic frameworks for the known localities, 4) continue exploration of uninvestigated areas within the study area and discover new resources of paleoanthropological interest.The Woranso-Mille Paleoanthrological Project will generate an enormous amount of new fossil data much needed for a better understanding of early human origins. The intellectual merits of the research will be its success in finding more vertebrate and especially hominid fossils, yielding new data on the anatomy and body proportions of early hominids, and revealing their geological and environmental contexts in the crucial time period around 4 million years ago. The broader impacts of the research include generating new fossil data significant for a better understanding of the earlier phases of human evolution in terms of their biology, physiology, and body proportions; address the apparent transition from Australopithecus anamensis to Australopithecus afarensis; communicate results to the public through publications and regular reports. The project has a long-term plan to train graduate and undergraduate students from American and Ethiopian universities who will eventually develop research questions for new projects.