DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Comparative Paleoecology of Late Miocene Eurasian Hominoidea Based on Bovid and Equid Metapodial Functional Morphology

研究人员提出了许多关于古代环境对我们人类历史的影响的假设。 然而，对于与这些假设相关的重要化石遗址，往往无法可靠地重建古代环境。 重建古代环境的一种方法是利用在现场发现的化石动物的运动模式信息来验证有关这些动物所使用的环境的假设。在这里，研究人员将开发与环境对中新世晚期欧亚人科动物的影响有关的遗址古代环境的重建，这是一群化石猿，可能与我们的第一批两足祖先最密切相关。 化石三趾马，现代马，化石和活羚羊的四肢骨骼的比较数据将被用来描述这些动物的运动模式的形态学相关。 这些信息将使研究人员能够通过识别这些地点常见的动物运动模式来识别化石地点所代表的环境类型。 例如，有许多快速奔跑的物种适应了在开阔的田野上逃离捕食者的地方，这意味着一个平原或类似热带草原的环境。本研究收集的比较数据将包括传统的公制数据、数字照片以及化石和稀有博物馆标本的高分辨率X射线CT扫描。 数据收集是非破坏性的，并将创建一个有价值的档案，了解灭绝物种的运动，环境对人类亲属的影响，以及我们星球上环境变化的长期历史。

Researchers have advanced many hypotheses about the influence of ancient environments on the history of our species, Homo sapiens. However, reliable reconstructions of ancient environments are often unavailable for important fossil sites relevant to these hypotheses. One method of reconstructing ancient environments uses information about modes of locomotion of fossil animals found at sites to test hypotheses about the environment used by these animals.Here, the researcher will develop reconstructions of ancient environments at sites relevant to questions about the influence of environment on the late Miocene Eurasian hominoids, a group of fossil apes potentially most closely related to our first bipedal ancestors. Comparative data on limb bones of fossil three-toed horses, modern Equus, and fossil and living antelopes will be used to describe the morphological correlates of the modes of locomotion employed by these animals. This information will allow the researcher to identify the types of environments represented at fossil sites by identifying the modes of locomotion of animals common at these sites. For instance, sites with many fast-running species adapted to flight from predators across open country would indicate a plains or savanna-like environment.The comparative data collected in this study will consist of traditional metric data, digital photographs, and high resolution X-ray CT scans of fossil and rare museum specimens. Data collection is non-destructive and will create a valuable archive essential to understanding both the locomotion of extinct species, the influence of environment on human relatives, and the long ongoing history of environmental change on our planet.