Workshop on Neogene Mammalian Chronology of Asia, June 2009 in Beijing, China

亚洲新近系陆生哺乳动物的年代学——亚洲新近系陆生哺乳动物与大北极区和非洲的对比及生物地理关系圆桌研讨会[j]，王晓明；摘要亚洲位于陆生哺乳动物洲际迁徙的十字路口，在我们理解哺乳动物进化、动物地理学、物种在周边大陆首次出现的相关问题及其作为生物年代学主要标志的功能方面起着至关重要的作用。这一战略地理位置在新近纪（~ 24200万年前）尤为明显，当时亚洲与非洲和北美断断续续相连，并与欧洲广泛相连。在亚洲建立一个完善的哺乳动物生物地层框架将对哺乳动物进化的全球图景大有帮助。然而，尽管如此重要和有希望，亚洲在陆地生物地层学和地质年代学的研究方面落后于欧洲和北美，许多尚未解决的问题成为详细了解其他地方哺乳动物进化的瓶颈。本次圆桌会议将于2009年6月在北京举行，这是亚洲陆生哺乳动物生物地层学和地质年代学领域的世界专家首次大规模聚会，与会者包括在生物地层学、磁地层学、生物年代学、动物地理学、古环境以及各种灭绝哺乳动物种群系统发育方面具有专业知识的科学家。除了提供个别地区和国家的最新进展外，研讨会还将深入讨论建立哺乳动物生物地层学框架的最佳方法，并将出版一本书（哥伦比亚大学出版社），这是唯一一本全面介绍亚洲陆地地质年代学的书。本卷将代表亚洲时间框架构建的最新技术，并将成为未来许多年的标准参考，不仅适用于亚洲哺乳动物生物年代学的学生，也适用于欧洲、非洲和北美周围大陆的地球科学社区。该研讨会将促进受限于先前区域观点的专家之间更广泛的合作，并为建立跨研究区域的脊椎动物古生物学家的第一个工作网络奠定基础。这次研讨会为地质学家和古生物学家之间的合作提供了前所未有的机会。预计超过一半的与会者将来自以前在国际会议上代表性不足的国家，其中许多也是女性（美国2人，俄罗斯3人，中国6人，土耳其、哈萨克斯坦和泰国各1人）。本项目由美国国家科学基金会沉积地质与古生物学项目与国际科学与工程办公室（土耳其[TU]和巴基斯坦[PK]）共同资助。

Neogene Mammalian Chronology of AsiaA Roundtable Workshop on Neogene Terrestrial Mammalian Faunas of Asia: Correlation and Biogeographic Relationships with Greater Holarctica and AfricaPI, Xiaoming Wang; co-PI, Lawrence J. FlynnAbstractLocated at the cross-roads of intercontinental migrations of terrestrial mammals, Asia plays a crucial role in our understanding of mammalian evolution, zoogeography, and related questions about species first appearances in surrounding continents and their function as major markers of biochronology. This strategic geographic position is particularly apparent during the Neogene (~24-2 million years ago) when Asia was intermittently connected to Africa and North America, and widely connected to Europe. A well-established mammalian biostratigraphic framework in Asia will go a long way toward a global picture of mammalian evolution. Despite such importance and promise, however, Asia lags behind Europe and North America in the studies of terrestrial biostratigraphy and geochronology, and many unresolved issues become bottlenecks for detailed understanding of mammalian evolution elsewhere. This proposed roundtable workshop, to be held in Beijing in June 2009, represents the first large-scale gathering of world experts on Asian terrestrial mammal biostratigraphy and geochronology, including scientists with expertise in biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, biochronology, zoogeography, paleoenvironment, as well as phylogenies of various groups of extinct mammals. In addition to offering the latest progress from individual regions and countries, the workshop will initiate in-depth discussions about the best methods to establish a mammalian biostratigraphic framework and will produce a book (Columbia University Press) that is the only comprehensive treatment of Asian terrestrial geochronology. This volume will represent the state of the art in construction of an Asian temporal framework, and will become a standard reference for many years to come, not only for students of mammalian biochronology in Asia, but also for the geoscience community in surrounding continents in Europe, Africa, and North America. The workshop will foster broader collaborations among specialists who are limited by a previously regional view, and lay the groundwork for establishing the first working network of vertebrate paleontologists across the study area. The workshop offers unprecedented opportunities for collaboration among geologists and paleontologists. More than half of the participants are expected to be from countries previously under-represented in international conferences, many of them also women (two from the United States, three from Russia, six from China, and one each from Turkey, Kazakhstan and Thailand). This project is co-funded by the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program and the Office of International Science and Engineering (Turkey [TU] and Pakistan [PK]) of the National Science Foundation, USA.