Exploration for Cenozoic Fossil-Bearing Deposits in the Atbara Valley, Sudan

在一次成功的初步调查之后，请求提供支助，为一个为期3年的实地考察项目提供一笔勘测赠款，该项目的目标是苏丹东南部上阿特巴拉河和塞提特河沿岸的一系列中到晚更新世化石矿床。我们最初的DFG和国家地理资助的调查是在2018年1月进行的，结果发现了许多新的化石遗址，覆盖约200公里，并记录了上阿特巴拉流域多达50米厚的冲积沉积物，并收集了约160个大型哺乳动物的化石标本。大量的石器证明，古人类在这片土地上很活跃，他们很可能也被发现为化石。我们新发现的一些化石遗址可能比该地区以前已知的沉积物更古老、更年轻，因此有可能提供过去100万年来的演化和气候变化的现场记录。这段时间在非洲的记录中通常没有得到充分的发掘(与上更新世相比)，苏丹的这种化石、考古和地质序列可以与经典的东非裂谷遗址相媲美。请提供支助，为三个实地季节提供经费，并分析所产生的数据。主要问题包括现代非洲哺乳动物生态的演变，从阿舍利时代到石器时代中期的技术过渡，以及尼罗河流域的演变阶段。

After a successful initial survey, support is requested to develop a reconnaissance grant into a 3-year fieldwork project targeting a sequence of Middle to Late Pleistocene fossiliferous deposits along the Upper Atbara and Setit Rivers in southeastern Sudan. Our initial DFG and National Geographic-funded survey took place in January 2018 and resulted in the discovery of numerous new fossil sites across some 200 km and in up to a 50m-thick record of alluvial sediments of the Upper Atbara drainage basin, and the collection of some 160 fossil specimens of large mammals. Hominins were active on the landscape as evidenced by abundant stone tools, and they are probably to be found as fossils as well. Some of our newly discovered fossil sites may be older and younger than previously known deposits in the area, and therefore have the potential to provide an in situ record of evolution and climate change over the last 1 million years. This time period is generally underexplored in the African record (in comparison to the Plio-Pleistocene) and such a fossil, archaeological, and geological sequence in Sudan could rival that of the classic eastern African Rift sites. Support is requested to fund three field seasons and for the analysis of resulting data. Main questions include the evolution of modern African mammal ecology, the technological transition from the Acheulean to the Middle Stone Age, and phases of evolution of the Nile River watershed.