West Africa's Role in Human Evolution

Información del proyecto

aWARE

Identificador del acuerdo de subvención: 794117

DOI

10.3030/794117

Proyecto finalizado el 31 Enero 2019

Fecha de la firma de la CE 19 Marzo 2018

Fecha de inicio 1 Agosto 2018

Fecha de finalización 31 Julio 2020

Financiado con arreglo a

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Coste total

€ 171 460,80

Aportación de la UE

€ 171 460,80

Coordinado por

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT ZUR FORDERUNG DER WISSENSCHAFTEN EV
Germany

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - aWARE (West Africa's Role in Human Evolution)

Período documentado: 2018-08-01 hasta 2020-07-31

Resumen del contexto y de los objetivos generales del proyecto

The pan African model of human evolution proposes that all of the African continent may have played some role in the origin of our species. However investigating this model further is hampered by the fact that currently about 75-80% of the African continent has been barely explored for what it can contribute to the story of human origins. The aWARE project proposed to address this problem and contribute towards understanding the character of our pan African evolution through a fieldwork programme in West Africa, one of the most poorly understood regions of the continent for this field of research. This research is therefore both important scientifically, but also important for society because our shared origins concern all humans.

The overall objectives of the project, therefore, were to first make the pan-African evolution model as explicit as possible in order to test hypotheses through West African fieldwork, generate new data from fieldwork in West Africa, and use these to test the hypotheses posed. In terms of training, my aims were to learn better computational methods of data analysis, in order to better integrate multiple sources of evidence and use a simulation approach to resolve different possible interpretations of the results.

Trabajo realizado desde el comienzo del proyecto hasta el final del período abarcado por el informe y los principales resultados hasta la fecha

In the six months I spent on the project before terminating it due to the offer of a permanent job, I set up fieldwork agreements with the respective West African countries involved, and set up the project's broader collaborative network for processing analysing the samples that would be generated. I also submitted and published a paper with my collaborators on the broad character of the pan African model of human origins and have submitted another detailing parameters of investigation. Due to the short term of the project, no data has yet been obtained and analysed.

Avances que van más allá del estado de la técnica e impacto potencial esperado (incluida la repercusión socioeconómica y las implicaciones sociales más amplias del proyecto hasta la fecha)

Given the short duration of the project (6 months), it is not possible to describe the projected impacts in full. However, the six months of the project did permit a substantial theoretical and systemic in understanding of the character of pan-African evolution that sets up research directions and questions for many years to come.

PI with collaborators in West Africa