This project is designed to extend the fossil record in time, fill in gaps, and study the fossils themselves in a site in China which will be important in understanding global change. This research will provide more precise age control to specify when and how faunal change occurred, thereby providing data relevant to theory on community change. It will provide data to test the hypothesis that faunal change in Asia and North America was synchronous and driven, in part, by global climatic events. It will show timing, direction, and nature of exchange of terrestrial fauna between Asia and North America. The best and most accessible record of mammalian history in northeastern Asia during the last six million years is Yushe Basin, Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. The record is good because it contains, in one upland valley/lake setting, superposed fossil assemblages of late Miocene to Pleistocene age. Previous collaborative work between American geologists and Chinese researchers has outlined the faunal succession and provided the time scale for it. The additional goals above will be met by one month of field work and by continued museum research, primarily in Beijing and New York.
