This award is to support a cooperative research between Dr. Ellen Miller, Department of Anthropology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, North Carolina and Dr. Ahmed Barkooky, Geology Department, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt. The goal is to enhance our understanding of North African mammalian and primate evolution, by conducting geological and paleontological work at Wadi Moghra and Siwa Oasis, early Miocene, Western Sahara, Egypt. Moghra is far better known as the site preserves an array of extinct mammals, including an early Old World monkey and an ape shortly after the divergence of the two lineages. Much less is known about Siwa. While the occurrence of fossil mammals at Moghra and Siwa has been documented, next to nothing is known about the paleoenvironment of either Moghra or Siwa, and little is known about the systematics and paleobiology of the Moghra or Siwa mammals themselves. The location of Moghra and Siwa, in Africa but physically closer to Eurasia than East Africa, provides a unique perspective from which to view the nature and extent of contact between early Miocene Eurasian and African mammals. However, data from North African localities has never been fully integrated into larger interpretations of mammalian biogeography. The project has the potential to make significant contributions to our understanding of higher primate origins and Neogene mammalian dispersal patterns, from a time period and geographic region that are critical for interpreting these events. The joint research expertise of the PIs are suited to the combined task of deciphering the sedimentology and stratigraphy of Moghra and Siwa (El-Barkooky), and using the biostratigraphy of these localities to test hypotheses about mammalian and primate evolution (Miller).
Scope and broad Impact: The collaboration will have significant impacts. First is by the establishment of a professional working partnership between American and Egyptian researchers. The structure of the teams secures a fully integrated, multi-disciplinary expertise without redundancy. In addition, the project provides training for three students (one American, two Egyptian). The training of Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists is of particular importance because it is critical that Egyptian citizens be able to sustain the development of this branch of science in Egypt. Until now, Egyptian vertebrate paleontologists have been very rare, in spite of the fact that Egypt contains some of the most important fossil localities known anywhere in the world. Still further, work at Moghra and Siwa holds particular relevance for those institutions attempting to balance long term developmental and economic interests, such as oil and gas exploration in the Western Desert, with the developmental gains that come from identifying and preserving areas of particular scientific, cultural heritage and touristic value. All results stemming from this project will be published jointly by the PIs and contributing expedition members. This project is being supported under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program, which provides grants to scientists and engineers in both countries to carry out these cooperative activities.
