Reconstructing Pleistocene ungulate migration in the Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem

有蹄类动物的大规模迁徙在历史上占据了非洲草原。今天，由于各种人为影响，大规模移民仅限于离散的保护景观。大塞伦盖蒂-马拉生态系统（GSME）（肯尼亚/坦桑尼亚）是塞伦盖蒂大迁徙的所在地，其中200万只蓝色角马、平原斑马和汤姆森瞪羚在生态系统中周期性地迁徙，以应对淡水和饲料质量和数量的季节性变化。有蹄类动物的迁徙被假设为与中新世中期C4草原扩张同时进化了几次，但对GSME内大规模迁徙的起源和迁徙物种对化石动物群组合的贡献知之甚少。该项目将利用化石牙齿的稳定锶、碳和氧同位素分析，研究通常从更新世人类遗址（即奥杜瓦伊峡谷）中发现的有蹄类动物的移动策略。将建立一个同位素框架，用于研究化石记录中有对应物的一系列物种的迁徙行为。化石同位素数据将使用大量已公布的全球和当地古气候和古环境数据进行背景化。整个更新世的气候波动的迁移反应，对目前的古环境和古生态学的理解的影响，以及未来气候变化情景下的塞伦盖蒂移民的威胁将进行探讨。

Ungulate mass migrations have historically dominated African grasslands. Today, due to a variety of anthropogenic impacts, mass migrations are restricted to discrete protected landscapes. The Greater Serengeti-Mara Ecosystem (GSME) (Kenya/Tanzania) hosts the Serengeti Migration, wherein two million blue wildebeest, plains zebra, and Thomson's gazelle migrate cyclically across the ecosystem in response to seasonal variability in freshwater and forage quality and quantity. Ungulate migrations are hypothesised to have evolved several times concurrent with mid-Miocene C4 grassland expansion, but the origin of mass migration within the GSME and the contribution of migratory species to fossil faunal assemblages are poorly understood. This project will characterise mobility strategies of ungulates commonly recovered from Pleistocene hominin sites, namely Olduvai Gorge, using stable strontium, carbon, and oxygen isotope analyses of fossil teeth. An isotopic framework for migratory behaviour from a range of species that have equivalents represented in the fossil record will be constructed. Fossil isotope data will be contextualised using the vast available published global and local palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental data. Migratory responses to climate fluctuations across the Pleistocene, implications for current understanding of the palaeoenvironment and palaeoecology, and threats to the Serengeti Migration under future climate change scenarios will be explored.