Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: A Comparative Study of Catarrhine Bone Microstructure and Life History

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Life history refers to the reproductive patterns characteristic of species, and the schedule and processes by which their members grow, mature, and die. The evolution and diversification of life history strategies among Old World monkeys and apes, and the origin of the unique life history pattern characteristic of humans, is a major interest of anthropologists. To extend investigations to extinct primates, including hominids, a focus has been the identification of anatomical "signatures" of life history that can be recognized in fossilized bones and teeth. The majority of studies to date have focused on aspects of dental development (e.g., microscopic near-weekly increments in enamel) that reflect the growth patterns of individuals. However, numerous studies of other vertebrates have demonstrated that microscopic structures in bone tissue constitute another important source of information about life history, thus expanding the foundation for studies of fossils. The current study is designed to examine the influence of life history on the developing micro-structural organization of the midshaft femur and humerus, focusing on a restricted comparative sample comprised of growth series of vervet monkeys, white-handed gibbons, and common chimpanzees. Using novel microscopy techniques, the specific aims of this study are: 1) to describe and quantify variability in several microscopic features of bone known to reflect individual growth patterns; 2) to assess the correspondence of micro-structural variables with more traditional measures of postnatal growth (e.g., known body weight, bone length, and dental eruption); 3) to determine whether species differences in bone micro-structural variables reflect life history variation; and 4) to consider the influence of changes in bone related to skeletal function on interpretations of life history. If the potential of bone micro-structure for discriminating aspects of life history is established in modern animals, this approach may contribute to our understanding of the evolution and diversification of life history strategies among primates, including the growth patterns of early hominids and their paleoenvironments.