This project examines primate evolutionary history through field research in the only Oligocene terrestrial vertebrate assemblage in Africa below the equator (Tanzania). The researchers have previously recovered novel strepsirrhine and anthropoid primates from this region. This research involves international collaboration between Ohio University and the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The project will provide training opportunities for three graduate and three undergraduate students from Ohio University to conduct hands-on laboratory and field research. Research will involve Tanzanian students and local participants. Results will be disseminated in scholarly publications and popular media. Science outreach for the project includes interactive websites, multilingual museum exhibits, and K-12 learning activities.
Understanding how primates and other organisms respond to environmental change is a timely topic for scientists and the general public alike. The Cenozoic Era of Africa records a remarkable and deep record of environmental change through time. This research project provides new data from a previously undersampled interval in the fossil record, for the first time documenting Oligocene mammals from Africa south of the equator. Included among these finds are new species that fill a gap in the primate fossil record. Prior to this work, a complete lack of data from this interval has hampered our understanding of how changes in global climate patterns and landmass configuration affected faunal composition through time. Near the Oligo-Miocene boundary, dramatic changes occurred in African terrestrial communities, when a collision between the Afro-Arabian and Eurasian landmasses resulted in replacement of many of the resident organisms by invading immigrant species. These changes had profound implications for the balance of predation and competition for Africa's resident primates. This project has three main goals: 1) to characterize the new fauna from the late Oligocene Nsungwe Formation of Tanzania, 2) to intensively sample for additional informative localities in the region, and 3) to conduct geological analyses to document the precise age and paleoecological setting of fossiliferous localities. Data from this project will bridge early Oligocene northern African faunas with the wealth of data known from Miocene localities across the continent, and will help to test hypotheses regarding the continent's tumultuous history of biotic change.
