Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evaluating Seasonality and Migration as Ecological Drivers of Technological Transition in Human Evolutionary History

这个跨学科的项目整合了地球化学，生态学和考古学，以了解是什么推动了从中石器时代（MSA）到晚石器时代（LSA）的转变。这种发生在大约5万年前的技术转变是人类进化史上观察到的最突出的行为变化之一。已经提出了MSA-LSA过渡的可能环境驱动因素，但由于缺乏适当的数据集，在环境和行为变化之间建立强大的联系一直具有挑战性。该项目将量化降水季节性，饮食季节性和大型动物运动的程度，通过这一关键时期，同时促进研究联系，并提供了一个基础，在合作环境中的本科生培训。除了提供资金培训一名人类学研究生掌握经验科学数据收集和分析方法外，该项目还将提高公众对科学和广泛传播其研究结果的科学方法的理解。资源可用性的季节性变化是否会影响人类在MSA-LSA过渡期间的行为？将通过对更新世化石地点的食草动物牙齿化石连续取样的稳定同位素分析，实现三个目标来解决这一问题：㈠利用锶同位素重建更新世迁徙系统; ㈡利用碳和氧同位素评估迁徙与降水和饮食季节性的关系;以及（iii）评估季节性和迁徙如何在末次冰期塑造人类觅食策略和技术变革。通过这些方法了解冰川期动物的生态学对于掌握现存和灭绝物种的进化生态学的全貌至关重要，并对人类进化，生物学和保护产生影响。此外，这项研究将是有史以来规模最大的评估连续采样锶同位素在这一研究背景下，这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准的支持。

This interdisciplinary project integrates geochemistry, ecology, and archaeology to understand what drove the transition from the Middle Stone Age (MSA) to the Later Stone Age (LSA). This technological transition, which occurred around 50,000 years ago, is one of the most prominent behavioral changes observed in human evolutionary history. Possible environmental drivers of the MSA-LSA transition have been proposed, but establishing robust links between environmental and behavioral change has been challenging due to the lack of appropriate datasets. This project will quantify the degree of precipitation seasonality, dietary seasonality, and large animal movement through this key period while fostering research links and providing a foundation for undergraduate training in a collaborative environment. In addition to providing funding for the training of a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, the project would enhance public understanding of science and the scientific method broadly disseminating its findings.The proposed project advances our understanding of the MSA-LSA transition by addressing the question: Did seasonal changes in resource availability influence human behavior across the MSA-LSA transition? Three objectives will be used to address this question through stable isotope analysis of serially-sampled fossil herbivore teeth from Pleistocene fossil sites: (i) using strontium isotopes to reconstruct Pleistocene migratory systems; (ii) using carbon and oxygen isotopes to evaluate how migration relates to precipitation and dietary seasonality; and (iii) assessing how seasonality and migration have shaped human foraging strategies and technological change during the last glacial period. Understanding the ecology of animals during glacial periods through these methods is essential to grasping the full picture of the evolutionary ecology of both living and extinct species, with implications for human evolution, biology, and conservation. Furthermore, this study will be the largest ever to evaluate serially-sampled strontium isotopes in this research context.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.