Award Abstract #0521538
System for Recovery and Dissemination of Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene Micromammal Fossil Data from Ethiopia

NSF Org:	BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Initial Amendment Date:	September 9, 2005
Latest Amendment Date:	September 9, 2005
Award Number:	0521538
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	Mark L. Weiss BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
Start Date:	September 1, 2005
Expires:	August 31, 2008 (Estimated)
Awarded Amount to Date:	$104147
Investigator(s):	Henry Wesselman hw@sharedwisdom.com (Principal Investigator)
Sponsor:	Sierra Community College 5000 Rocklin Road Rocklin, CA 95677 916/624-3333
NSF Program(s):	MAJOR RESEARCH INSTRUMENTATION
Field Application(s):
Program Reference Code(s):	EGCH, 9278
Program Element Code(s):	1189

ABSTRACT

With support from a National Science Foundation Major Research Instrumentation Award, Sierra Community College Natural History Museum and the National Museum of Ethiopia will implements a linked system of instrumentation to acquire and channel fossils from the field to the global scientific community. The equipment array will include a vehicle for the collection and transport of micromammals, digital imaging and data sharing (computing) equipment, software, and satellite internet hardware and service. The proposed project is designed to actuate and integrate small mammal studies into ongoing research in human origins and evolution and to promptly share collected data worldwide using the Internet.

Micromammalian fossils provide some of the best tools for reconstructing prehistoric environmental conditions, understanding faunal interchange between and across continents, deciphering regional endemism, and visualizing evolutionary patterns through time. Micromammals, comprised of Rodentia, Lagomorpha, Insectivora, and Chiroptera, are a speciose set and occupy a diverse array of very specific niches. In the case of African paleontology and paleoanthropology, studies of small mammals are of particular intellectual merit because they are one of the most effective means of establishing the ecology and environment inhabited by human ancestors.

Research conducted with this instrumentation will include the collection of micromammal fossils and their transportation to the National Museum of Ethiopia, acquiring research quality photographs of specimens, and distributing these digital images to the global scientific community via servers in the National Museum of Ethiopia and the Sierra College Natural History Museum. Training in analytical and technological methods will focus on upcoming African scholars, Sierra College students, and graduate students from the University of California. Broader learning will be fostered through the proposed instrumentation via instruction and outreach programs based from the National Musuem of Ethiopia and Sierra College. The instrumentation will be featured in coursework at Sierra College, in displays at the Sierra College Natural History Musuem, and through links from its website. Research will be promoted by encouraging access to the instrumentation by multiple groups engaging in micromammal studies in Ethiopia, as well as by the placement of publicly accessible high-resolution fossil imagery on the Internet.

Funding requested will have several broad impacts. It will enable a unique paleontological digital sister relationship between museums in Africa and the United States. It will increase global access to primary data, foster student interest, and promote inclusion of people who might otherwise not have primary access to fossils due to disability or lack of funding. It will serve as example of a simple, effective way that information technology may be harnessed to open remote collections to a larger number of researchers and students, increasing the availability of primary information on paleoclimate, mammalian evolutionary systematics, and the circumstances of human origins.

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