Eocene-Oligocene Primate Evolution and Climate Change in the Fayum Depression, Northern Egypt

Suny At Stony Brook, Stony Brook NY

Investigators

Abstract

There is now broad agreement among students of primate evolution that the last common ancestor of the living monkeys, apes, and humans (Anthropoidea) lived in Africa during the later part of the Eocene epoch, between about 45 and 34 million years ago. The primary fossil evidence documenting this critical phase in primate evolutionary history comes from sedimentary deposits exposed in the Fayum Depression, northern Egypt, which are 37 to 28 million years in age. Past work has revealed evidence for a diverse radiation of anthropoid primates that lived in this area 29 to 34 million years ago; the recent discovery of fossil anthropoids and other primates at a much older, 37 million-year-old, site in the area has now provided paleontologists with an unprecedented 8-million-year-long record of primate and non-primate mammalian evolution in this part of northern Africa. Over the course of three field seasons (in 2008, 2009, 2010) paleontological work in the Fayum area will help to reveal important new insights into the early evolutionary history of Anthropoidea, including the impact of one of the most dramatic changes to Earth climate during the Age of Mammals -- the rapid onset of Antarctic glaciation, and associated global cooling phase, which began about 34 million years ago at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. A skilled team of vertebrate paleontologists, geologists, paleobotanists, and geochemists has been assembled to collect and analyze vertebrate fossils, plant fossils, and rock samples throughout this succession as a means for studying environmental change and primate and non-primate evolution and adaptation before, during, and after the climatic events at the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Stable isotope data will be extracted from fossil specimens in order to date localities and reconstruct paleoenvironments. As such, our team will not only collect new vertebrate fossil material as in years past, but importantly also aims to place fossil sites into a well-dated framework so that patterns of biotic evolution and extinction can be evaluated within the context of both local and global environmental change. Recovery and analysis of the fossil evidence that documents our shared evolutionary history with anthropoids and other primates is of great interest to the scientific community and the general public. Despite many years of paleontological research, a number of key questions remain unanswered; for instance, the roles that geography, plate tectonics, climate change, extinction, and competition have played in shaping our anthropoid ancestors' ancient evolutionary history continue to be actively debated. This research will provide paleontological field training for a number of young Ph.D. students, including members of groups that are underrepresented in physical anthropology and particularly paleoanthropology. This research will also allow American and Egyptian researchers to work together as part of an international collaboration that will provide new opportunities and resources for students and educators in both the U.S.A. and Egypt.