Flinders Microarchaeology Laboratory, Archaeology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
School of Humanities, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
Nat Ecol Evol. 2023 Dec;7(12):1971-1977. doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02215-5. Epub 2023 Nov 30.
Advanced geoscience techniques are essential to contextualize fossils, artefacts and other archaeologically important material accurately and effectively. Their appropriate use will increase confidence in new interpretations of the fossil and archaeological record, providing important information about the life and depositional history of these materials and so should form an integral component of all human evolutionary studies. Many of the most remarkable recent finds that have transformed the field of human evolution are small and scarce, ranging in size from teeth to strands of DNA, recovered from complex sedimentary environments. Nevertheless, if properly analysed, they hold immense potential to rewrite what we know about the evolution of our species and our closest hominin ancestors.
先进的地球科学技术对于准确有效地分析化石、文物和其他具有考古重要性的材料至关重要。正确使用这些技术将提高对化石和考古记录新解释的信心，为这些材料的生命和沉积历史提供重要信息，因此应该成为所有人类进化研究的一个组成部分。许多最近的、改变人类进化领域的最显著发现都是小而稀缺的，从牙齿到 DNA 链不等，这些发现来自于复杂的沉积环境。然而，如果得到正确分析，它们具有巨大的潜力来改写我们对人类物种和最接近的人类祖先进化的认识。
