March 24 2021 13h: international seminar n° 20
Speaker
Benjamin Bourel
Université de Bourgogne, Dijon
Topic
Pollen use for the spatial high-resolution reconstruction of Pliocene Hominini environments in the eastern African Rift (Ethiopia)
Between 3.8 Ma and 2.8 Ma, the northern Awash Basin (eastern African rift, Ethiopia) displayed a great richness and diversity of Australopithecus with at least four species, as well as the first evidence for tool use and the earliest remains of the genus Homo. This makes it a major spatial and temporal area for the morphological and cultural evolution of the human lineage. However, the environmental processes that drove the evolution of Hominini in this area remain disputed. Similarly, the ecological preferences of one of the main species, Australopithecus afarensis, are still poorly understood. In order to help answering to these questions, Afin d’aider à résoudre ces questions, the author will present his PhD results on the spatial-high-resolution reconstruction of the paleoenvironments from this are thanks to pollens. These results are based on a combination between new pollen data, the reinterpretation of previous pollen data and the developping of artificial intelligences.
Videoconference