INSPIRE: Forging new connections among mammalian evolution, environmental change, and tectonics during the Eocene.

启发：在始新世哺乳动物进化、环境变化和构造之间建立新的联系。INSPIRE项目由美国地质科学理事会（GEO）地球科学部沉积地质学与古生物学项目、美国社会行为与经济理事会（SBE）行为与认知科学部生物人类学项目、美国社会行为与经济理事会（SBE）多学科活动办公室、美国国际科学与工程办公室（OISE）、美国科学与工程理事会（OISE）联合资助。以及国际和综合活动办公室（OIIA） INSPIRE项目。该项目调查了地球环境的剧烈变化如何影响西南亚及邻近地区早期灵长类动物和其他哺乳动物的进化。一个由堪萨斯大学和美国、土耳其和法国的合作机构组成的国际科学家团队将探索始新世（距今约4000万至4500万年）的化石遗址，其中包括非洲和欧亚的哺乳动物。这些始新世哺乳动物生活在一个由显著的气候和地质变化造成的环境中。该小组将探索板块构造、环境变化、本地哺乳动物群体和“入侵物种”(如第一次殖民非洲的早期类人猿（现代猴子、猿和人类的灵长类祖先）的进化之间的潜在联系。早期类人猿和其他亚洲哺乳动物可能穿越西南亚到达非洲，这一假设将由pi的工作来验证。该项目将加强美国和土耳其科学家和学生之间的科学合作和教育机会，同时从根本上推进对早期哺乳动物进化的理解，包括我们自己的类人猿灵长类祖先，在非洲、欧洲和亚洲的十字路口。该项目的多学科团队将在野外收集新的数据，并在实验室进行详细的调查，目的是：(1)记录和描述始新世哺乳动物动物群，以了解单个分类群的系统发育和生物地理关系，以及整个动物群是如何聚集的；(2)限定冈瓦纳微板在土耳其的增生时间和过程及其与始新世哺乳动物群的关系；(3)建立始新世环境的多代理重建及其对当地动物和环境的影响；(4)评估土耳其作为早期亚洲类人猿灵长类动物和其他哺乳动物殖民非洲途径的潜在作用；(5)对哺乳动物化石记录进行宏观进化分析，探索自然环境与动物扩散和动物更替模式之间的可预测联系。

INSPIRE: Forging new connections among mammalian evolution, environmental change, and tectonics during the Eocene.K. Christopher Beard and Michael TaylorUniversity of Kansas, EAR-1543684ABSTRACTThis INSPIRE project is jointly funded by the Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology Program in the Earth Sciences Division of the Geosciences (GEO) Directorate, the Biological Anthropology Program in the Division of Behavorial and Cognitive Sciences of the Social, Behavorial and Economic (SBE) Directorate, the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities, the Office of International Science and Engineering (OISE), and the Office of International and Integrative Activities (OIIA) INSPIRE program. This project investigates how dramatic changes in the Earth's environment impacted the evolution of early primates and other mammals in southwest Asia and adjacent regions. An international team of scientists from the University of Kansas and partner institutions in the USA, Turkey and France will explore Eocene (~40-45 million years old) fossil sites that include both African and Eurasian mammals. These Eocene mammals lived in an environment wrought by remarkable climatic and geologic changes. The team will explore potential links between plate tectonics, environmental change, and the evolution of both native mammal groups and "invasive species" such as early anthropoids (primate ancestors of modern monkeys, apes and humans) that were colonizing Africa for the first time. Early anthropoids and other Asian mammals may have traversed southwest Asia in order to get to Africa, a hypothesis that will be tested by the PIs work. The project will strengthen scientific cooperation and educational opportunities between American and Turkish scientists and students, while fundamentally advancing the understanding of early mammalian evolution, including our own anthropoid primate ancestors, at the crossroads between Africa, Europe and Asia.The multidisciplinary team working on this project will collect new data in the field and perform detailed investigations in the lab aimed at: (1) documenting and characterizing the Eocene mammal fauna in order to understand the phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships of individual taxa and how the entire fauna was assembled; (2) constraining the timing and processes of accretion of Gondwanan microplates onto Turkey and their relationship to the Eocene mammal faunas there; (3) establishing a multi-proxy reconstruction of Eocene environments and its impact on the local fauna and environment; (4) assessing the potential role of Turkey as a pathway for the colonization of Africa by early Asian anthropoid primates and other mammals; and (5) conducting macroevolutionary analyses of the mammalian fossil record to investigate predictable links between the physical environment and patterns of faunal dispersal and faunal turnover.