Paleoanthropological Investigation of Miocene to Pliocene Primate-Bearing Deposits at Sahabi and Jabal Zaltan in Eastern Libya: Fossil Collection, Age and Environmental Context

New Mexico State University, Las Cruces NM

Investigators

Abstract

This award will initiate interdisciplinary and multinational paleoanthropological field work at the Miocene fossil sites of Jabal Zaltan and Qasr as-Sahabi in eastern Libya. Research here can help to answer such long-standing questions of broad evolutionary biological import as whether the African ape-human clade had an African versus Eurasian origin, what environmental context hominid bipedalism evolved in, and what morphological and species-level transformations occurred in higher primate and other vertebrate taxa in response to the formation of the Sahara Desert and the desiccation of the Mediterranean Sea at the end of the Miocene. Major goals of the eight-week long field season funded by this award are to improve the current record of Miocene primates and other vertebrate fossils from the early Miocene to early Pliocene of North Africa, and to produce the first paleomagnetic record of reversals throughout the Zaltan and Sahabi sequences allowing the confirmation and refinement of current biostratigraphic dating of the deposits. Because the age of one of the oldest possible ancestors of bipedal hominids, Sahelanthropus tchadensis, is dated based on biostratigraphic correlation of the Toros-Menalla Formation to Sahabi, determining the precise age of the Sahabi deposits will provide the first independent evidence of the age of this important ancestor. Documenting faunal succession throughout the 20-4 MA time period in North Africa will represent a major contribution to understanding the impact of global climate change on patterns of vertebrate extinction, speciation, biogeography, and adaptation. The broader impact of this project is that it represents the re-initiation of collaborative research between Libyan and American scientists following a 23 year break in diplomatic ties between the two countries. It occurs at a time when improved relations and understanding between Arab countries and the U.S. is critical. It is an extension of research undertaken at Sahabi during the late 1970s and early 1980s and led by Dr. Noel Boaz and Libyan geologists Ali El-Arnauti and the late Wahid Gaziry of Garyounis University in Benghazi. The current project is a major impetus for establishing a program of broad scholarly exchange between New Mexico State University and Garyounis University in Libya, which will begin with paleoanthropology and geology. The exchange will extend to many of NMSU's land grant programs such as agriculture, natural resources, engineering, health, and education. The project will provide training opportunities for students at NMSU, a Hispanic-serving institution with a high percentage of first generation college students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.