Palaeontological pilot survey of unstudied sediments in the Chiwondo Beds, Northern Malawi

在拟议的项目中，我们计划在马拉维北方的“Chiwondo层”中进行上新世-更新世沉积矿床的古生物勘探。在为期三周的实地考察中，我们的目标是在三个以前没有研究过的地理限制区域对沉积表面进行系统调查，以恢复更多的脊椎动物化石遗骸，并评估进一步进行古生物学野外工作的潜力。该项目的内容侧重于东南非洲马拉维裂谷作为东部和南部非洲之间的扩张和迁移走廊的作用鉴于该沉积序列位于东非和南非著名的人类遗址之间的特殊地理位置、漫长的地质年代以及罕见的人属和傍人属化石，对该沉积序列中的生物地层学进行全面的了解是非常重要的。由于Chiwondo层沉积物的化石密度与东非裂谷系的其他已知地点相比相当低，我们计划在目标三周内尽可能多地探索沉积物表面。这将使我们能够全面了解从西部裂谷肩到现在的海岸的化石潜力-马拉维湖。主要目标是增加可识别的脊椎动物化石在其地层环境中的数量，以便与来自单元3沉积物的更知名的年轻Chiwondo Beds动物群相比，即使是更古老的沉积单元2也可以进行动物群重建。我们专门关注Chiwondo区域从未被系统研究过的床。预计在拟议的研究区域暴露的沉积物中含有来自地层学上最古老的沉积物的脊椎动物化石遗骸，其年龄超过3.75 Ma。一个更完整的知识的大型哺乳动物区系组成的单元2的Chiwondo层是必不可少的更详细的跟踪时间变化的环境条件，朝着有点干燥的栖息地，证明了在上新世晚期与属人的第一次出现约2.5马。

With the proposed project we plan a paleontological exploration in Plio-Pleistocene sedimentary deposits in the hominin-bearing "Chiwondo Beds" in northern Malawi. During a three-week field campaign, we aim to conduct a systematic survey of the sedimentary surface in three geographically restricted areas that have not been studied before, in order to recover additional fossil vertebrate remains and assess the potential for further paleontological fieldwork.The content of the project focuses on the role of the southeastern African Malawi Rift as an expansion and migration corridor between eastern and southern African faunas in the Plio-Pleistocene during the emergence of the genus Homo.Given the particular geographic location between the famous hominin sites in eastern Africa and South Africa, the extensive geologic time period, and the rare Homo and Paranthropus remains already attested, a comprehensive understanding of the biostratigraphy in the sedimentary sequence is important. Because the Chiwondo Beds sediments have a fairly low fossil density compared to other known sites in the East African Rift System, we plan to explore as much sediment surface as possible in the targeted three weeks. This will allow us to draw a comprehensive picture of the fossil potential from the western rift shoulder to the shore of present-day Lake Malawi.The main goal is to increase the number of identifiable vertebrate fossils in their stratigraphic context to allow faunal reconstruction of even the older sedimentary Unit 2 compared to the better known younger Chiwondo Beds faunas from Unit 3 sediments.We focus exclusively on areas of the Chiwondo Beds that have never been systematically studied before. Sediments exposed in the proposed study areas are expected to contain additional fossil vertebrate remains from the stratigraphically oldest deposits older than 3.75 Ma. A more complete knowledge of the large mammal faunal composition of Unit 2 of the Chiwondo Beds is essential to more detailed trace the temporal changes in environmental conditions toward somewhat drier habitats, as evidenced in the later Pliocene with the first appearance of the genus Homo around 2.5 Ma.