US-Eritrea Cooperative Research: Paleoecology and Paleoenvironmental Analysis of the Miocene Red Series

University Of Akron, Akron OH

Investigators

Abstract

9911968 Park This award supports a one-year collaborative research project among Dr. Lisa E. Park, of the Department of Geology at the University of Akron; Dr. Kevin F. Downing, from DePaul University; and Dr. Beraki Woldehaimanot, of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Asmara in Eritrea. The middle to late Miocene geologic record for East Africa is incomplete, especially for the period spanning 15 - 4 million years ago. This time period is particularly important because it is a pivotal and problematic geological interval for hominid origins, and it is also a time of dramatic global climate change. Based on a brief pilot survey, the principal investigators (PIs) found that the little-researched series of sedimentary deposits, known as the Red Series, in the Danakil Rift contain vertebrate and invertebrate fossils from a complex sequence of paleoenvironments, and that some of these deposits were made 10 - 4 million years ago. This field project is expected to yield fossils that will establish the sedimentary deposits in the Eastern Danakil Depression of Eritrea as an important and unique source of information for the study of Miocene paleoecology in East Africa. The PIs will collect and analyze data to enable them to develop a detailed paleoecological and biostratigraphic record for invertebrate and vertebrate fossils for the Red Series, which they will then use to assess the character of northern Afar paleoenvironments during the Late Miocene. By documenting patterns of faunal change through the Red Series deposits, they will seek to determine the interrelationship of faunal change and species evolution to local and regional environmental shifts or known intervals of significant climate change. The study will also provide the initial sedimentologial and stratigraphic data that should yield new insights into the relationship between deposition and the tectonic history of this geologically critical region of the world. The collaboration combines the expertise of Drs. Park and Downing, invertebrate paleontology and geological and vertebrate paleontology, respectively, with Dr. Woldehaimanot's expertise in structural geology and basin analysis. The research team will also include a sedimentologist, a US graduate student, and researchers and students from the University of Asmara. This investigation is expected to provide critical paleoecological information on the habitat of early hominids. The results also have potential applications to aid in understanding the tectonics, structural geology, geochronology, climatology, and human ecology events that occurred during the mid-Miocene of the northern Afar Region in East Africa. The Division of International Programs and the Division of Earth Sciences are jointly providing funding for this project.