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

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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.