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

关于古代环境对人类历史的影响，研究人员提出了许多假说。然而，与这些假说相关的重要化石遗址往往无法可靠地重建古代环境。一种重建古环境的方法是利用在遗址发现的化石动物运动模式的信息来检验关于这些动物所使用的环境的假说。在这里，研究人员将在与环境对欧亚大陆晚期人的影响相关的地点重建古代环境，欧亚人是一群化石猿，可能与我们的第一个两足类祖先关系最密切。我们将使用三趾马化石、现代马匹以及化石和活着的藏羚羊四肢骨骼的比较数据来描述这些动物所使用的运动方式的形态相关性。这些信息将使研究人员能够通过识别化石遗址常见的动物运动模式来识别化石遗址所代表的环境类型。例如，有许多快速奔跑的物种适应了捕食者在开阔地带的逃亡，这表明那里是平原或类似稀树草原的环境。这项研究收集的比较数据将包括传统的度量数据、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，将创建一个宝贵的档案，对于了解灭绝物种的迁徙、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.