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这个物种——智人——的历史影响的假设。然而，对于与这些假设相关的重要化石遗址，往往无法对古代环境进行可靠的重建。重建古代环境的一种方法是利用在遗址中发现的动物化石的运动模式信息来检验这些动物所处环境的假设。在这里，研究人员将在与环境对晚中新世欧亚人猿的影响有关的地点重建古代环境，人猿是一组可能与我们的第一个两足祖先最密切相关的猿类化石。对化石三趾马、现代马、化石和现存羚羊肢体骨的比较数据将用于描述这些动物运动模式的形态学关联。这些信息将使研究人员能够通过识别这些地点常见动物的运动模式来识别化石地点所代表的环境类型。例如，如果一个地方有许多快速奔跑的物种，它们适应了在开阔的国家躲避捕食者，那么这个地方就意味着一个平原或热带稀树草原般的环境。本研究收集的比较数据将包括传统的度量数据、数字照片、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，并且将创建一个宝贵的档案，对于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长期持续的环境变化历史至关重要。

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.