This $146,000 project grant awarded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) program (CFDA 47.075) supports collaborative paleontological and geological research to advance understanding of human origins and evolution. The 3-year project led by The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) aims to:
(I) Conduct intensive paleontological recovery of 6-million-year-old fossil assemblages to shed light on the ecological contexts, adaptations, and evolutionary histories of early African mammals;
(II) Reconstruct local paleoclimate, vegetation structure, and herbivore community ecology through analyses of phytoliths, stable isotopes, and other proxies; and
(III) Refine the regional geological framework to enable correlations between the critical fossil sites dating to the emergence of the human lineage.
This multi-proxy, multidisciplinary research will provide robust dietary, environmental, and climatic data to better contextualize these rare early hominid fossils. The project also integrates mentored educational activities for American K-12 students through outreach at the American Museum of Natural History. No subawards are planned under this grant.
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