RUI: Functional and Phylogenetic Implications of Spinal Quotient Analysis in Fossil Mammals

RUI：化石哺乳动物椎商分析的功能和系统发育意义

• 批准号: 9105546
• 负责人: Emily Buchholtz
• 金额: $ 4.54万
• 依托单位: Wellesley College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1991
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1991-09-01 至 1994-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9105546&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Functional; Phylogenetic; Implications; Spinal

Extension of paleoneurological studies to the spinal cord allows functional and phylogenetic interpretations of the anatomy and locomotory patterns of fossil taxa previously thought to be inaccessible. Preliminary morphometric analysis of vertebrae of living mammalian genera indicates that the mammalian spinal cord differs from the reptilian cord in several characters with osteological ramifications. These characters can be used to recognize the appearance of mammalian spinal traits in the fossil record. A relationship between the size of segmental spinal cord cross-sectional area and locomotory mode has been demonstrated in living reptiles and used to predict limb function in extinct taxa. Measurement of a wide range of living mammalian genera will establish standards of relative spinal cord size for different locomotory patterns. Comparison of these values to those obtained from fossil taxa will allow reconstruction of the adoption of different patterns of limb use in a variety of mammalian orders. Osteological specimens of living and fossil genera will be studied in a small number of rich museum collections using computer-based imaging.

将古神经学研究延伸到脊髓，可以对以前被认为是无法获得的化石分类群的解剖学和运动学模式进行功能和系统发育解释。对现存哺乳动物属脊椎的初步形态计量学分析表明，哺乳动物脊髓与爬行动物脊髓在一些特征上不同，具有骨学分支。这些特征可以用来识别化石记录中哺乳动物脊椎特征的外观。节段性脊髓横截面积的大小与运动方式之间的关系已经在现存的爬行动物中得到证实，并被用来预测已灭绝的类群的肢体功能。对多种活体哺乳动物的测量将为不同的运动模式建立相对脊髓大小的标准。将这些值与从化石分类群中获得的值进行比较，将能够重建各种哺乳动物目中采用的不同肢体使用模式。活的和化石的属的骨学标本将在少数丰富的博物馆收藏品中使用基于计算机的成像进行研究。