This award will support collaborative research between Dr. Gifford Miller of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Dr. Allan R. Chivas of the Australian National University. The research is to apply to ostrich eggshells a new and highly successful varient of the dating technique, amino acid racemization, that is, investigation of protein changes from active to inactive materials. The technique can only be used when there is no loss of these materials from internal to external environments; the great density of ostrich eggshells protects such loss in this research. Highly reproducible dates on the timing and patterns of the migration of hominids across Asia and into Australia, and information on climatic changes over relatively short periods of geological time will result from this research. As racemization can be applied to materials which are too old to be dated by radiocarbon dating, the project provides a unique opportunity to date activities in the 35,000 and older time range. The project represents excellent collaboration between the Australian and U.S. researchers. The Australian group will contribute expertise in isolating individual amino acids from fossils, excellent laboratory facilities, and field support for collecting samples. Dr. Miller will contribute his already-extensive expertise in the technique of amino acid racemization for dating. This is clearly important work of benefit to both the Australian and U.S. scientific communities on dating the ages of human migration and associated climate change.
