Acquisition of Integrated Imaging and Image Analysis Equipment for the Archaeology, Cultural and Biological Anthropology Programs at Hunter College, CUNY

在美国国家科学基金会的部分支持下，纽约市立大学亨特学院人类学系将购买一套图像分析系统，包括一台Leica Steroscan 440扫描电子显微镜、一台Leica Q600 HR图像分析系统、一台Leica-Leitz DMRX/E通用显微镜和一台Leica-Wild立体显微镜。这一设备将有助于对活的和化石的人类种群的生物学和文化以及对活的和化石的非人类灵长类动物的生态学和进化生物学进行进化、生态、功能和适应性研究。 许多将要进行的项目着眼于骨骼的微观结构，因此收集的形态学数据将使研究人员能够解决一些问题。这些将提供深入了解：面部发育变化和解剖学现代人类的起源;大脑发育和其他因素对灵长类动物面部形状的影响;非洲大猿的适应性形态;骨骼标志的微观结构及其与机械功能和生物作用的相关性;胶原纤维取向和骨的生物力学。这些项目将增加对骨骼形式与其功能之间关系的理解，并使古人类学家能够根据骨骼化石的分析重建灭绝动物的形态和行为。第二个主要的研究领域福尔斯属于考古学的范畴。科学家们将使用这种设备来检查石器上的微观划痕，并确定这些工具的功能。它们还将使动物区系分析师能够确定被捕食动物被杀害的季节，并重建史前人类的狩猎策略。 这些设备将广泛用于教学和研究目的的研究生和本科生以及纽约市地区其他机构的科学家。

With partial support from the National Science Foundation, the Anthropology Department of Hunter College, CUNY, will purchase an image analysis system including a Leica Steroscan 440 Scanning Electron Microscope, a Leica Q600 HR Image Analysis System, a Leica-Leitz DMRX/E Universal Microscope and a Leica-Wild Stereo Microscope. This equipment will permit evolutionary, ecological, functional and adaptational research on the biology and culture of living and fossil human populations, as well as the ecology and evolutionary biology of living and fossil nonhuman primates. Many of the projects to be conducted look at the microscopic structure of bone and the morphological data thus collected will allow investigators to address a number of questions. These will provide insight into: facial development variation and the origins of anatomically modern humans; the effects of brain development and other factors on primate facial form; the adaptive morphology of African great apes; the microstructure of osteological landmarks and their correlation with mechanical function and biological role; collagen fiber orientation and the biomechanics of bone. Taken together these projects will increase understanding of how the form of bones relates to the functions they perform and will permit paleoanthropologists to reconstruct the morphology and behavior of extinct animals based on the analysis of fossil bones. A second major area of research falls within the scope of archaeology. Scientists will use this equipment to examine microscopic scratches on stone tools and determine the functions these implements served. They will also allow faunal analysts to determine the seasons during which prey animals were killed and to reconstruct the hunting strategies of prehistoric peoples. The equipment will be widely used by graduate and undergraduate students for teaching and research purposes and by scientists from other institutions in the New York City area.