Anthropoid Origins Symposium (New)

该奖项将资助举办一次研讨会，将对类人猿（包括猴子、猿和人类在内的灵长类动物）起源问题持不同意见的科学家聚集在一起。与会者将讨论以下问题：类人猿与其他灵长类动物有何关系？这个组织起源于何时何地？今天的类人猿有哪些功能和适应性创新？这些创新的适应意义和进化历史是什么？对于那些有兴趣加深我们对灵长类动物进化知识的人来说，这是一个激动人心的时刻。在亚洲和非洲新近发现的始新世中晚期灵长类动物，被各种各样的解释为支持关于类人猿关系和生物地理起源的相互竞争的假设。关于现存类人猿的主要类人猿类群——卡氏猴和平氏猴（旧世界猴和新世界猴）的古代存在同样不同的观点。人们对视觉系统、大脑和进食器官的功能和适应性有了更好的了解，这些关键的解剖系统集中了类人猿的独特特征。估计灵长类动物化石的视觉敏锐度和活动模式的新方法为视觉系统的进化提供了新的见解。灵长类动物色觉信息的快速积累，包括新的遗传证据表明，链鼻虫可能具有三色性，以及新的行为数据表明，色觉的好处，使得评估色觉在类人猿进化中的作用成为一个激动人心的时刻。近年来，神经科学家对灵长类动物视觉系统的研究产生了大量重要数据，这是将这些研究人员与人类学家聚集在一起的理想时机。灵长类动物行为学家和生态学家正在开发新的模型来解释灵长类动物群体生活的起源，类人猿为这些观点提供了极好的检验。早期类人猿的化石记录允许对这些模型进行测试，揭示新的性状组合，可以为这些模型提供关键的证伪，并提示当前性状关联进化的顺序。分子方法继续帮助澄清我们对进化变化的时间和速度的理解。会议的目的是将这些领域的一些重要研究人员聚集在一起讨论他们的观点，以加强研究视觉和咀嚼系统、分子系统学和系统发育分析应用于适应研究的古生物学家和新生生物学家之间的知识交流。

This award will underwrite a symposium organized to bring together scientists with divergent opinions on questions surrounding the origins of anthropoids, the group of primates including monkeys, apes and humans. The participants will address such questions as: How are anthropoids related to other primates? Where and when did the group originate? What functional and adaptive innovations characterize anthropoids today? What is the adaptive significance and evolutionary history of these innovations? This is an exciting time for those interested in deepening our knowledge of primate evolution. Newly recovered middle and late Eocene primates from Asia and Africa have been variously interpreted as supporting competing hypotheses regarding anthropoid relationships and biogeographic origins. Equally divergent views exist concerning the antiquity of the major groups of living anthropoids-catarrhines and platyrrhines (Old World and New World Monkeys). There is an improved understanding of function and adaptation in the visual system, brain, and feeding apparatus, key anatomical systems where distinctive anthropoid features are concentrated. New methods for estimating visual acuity and activity patterns in fossil primates are providing insights into the evolution of the visual system. The rapid accumulation of information on color vision in primates, including new genetic evidence of possible trichromacy in strepsirrhines, and new behavioral data on the benefits of color vision, makes this an exciting time to evaluate the role of chromatic perception in anthropoid evolution. Research into the primate visual system by neuroscientists has generated a plethora of important data in recent years, making this an ideal time to bring these researchers together with anthropologists. Primate behaviorists and ecologists are developing new models to explain the origins of group living in primates and anthropoids provide an excellent test of these ideas. The fossil record of early anthropoids allows testing of these models, revealing novel trait combinations that can provide critical falsification of these models and suggest the sequence in which current trait associations have evolved. Molecular approaches continue to aid in clarifying our understanding of the timing and tempo of evolutionary change.The objective is to bring together some of the key researchers in these fields to discuss their views, to enhance intellectual exchanges among paleontologists and neontologists who study the visual and masticatory systems, molecular systematics, and phylogenetic analysis as applied to the study of adaptation.