Dissertation Research: Skeletal Anatomy and Locomotor Adaptations of the Early Tertiary Plesiadapiformes

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Graduate student K. Christopher Beard proposes to study the Plesiadapiformes, an important group of fossil mammals found, among other places, in the American West. These extinct species are considered by many to be early primates, though their evolutionary relationships to this and other mammal groups is a controversial subject. In order to expand our understanding of this group, Mr. Beard will concentrate his efforts on an analysis of post-cranial fossils. These data on limb proportions and biomechanics will also shed light on controversies regarding the life habits of early primates, specifically, whether they were arboreal or ground-dwelling. These new data will be combined with information from the literature into an analysis of evolutionary relationships. Early primate evolution is far from well understood, and the proposed research would add a new dimension to the information on which our understanding is based. New analyses of primate and other early mammmal relations will have wide impact on vertebrate zoologists and on evolutionary biologists in general.