Doctoral Dissertation Research: Postcranial Proportional Variation in Australopithecus

博士论文研究：南方古猿颅后比例变异

• 批准号: 0234193
• 负责人: Carol Ward
• 金额: $ 0.9万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2003
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2003-04-15 至 2005-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0234193&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Postcranial; Proportional

The specific objective of the proposed research is to evaluate species boundaries in the hominid genus Australopithecus using a novel method. This will be achieved by evaluating variation in postcranial skeletal proportions of unassociated individuals from the fossil assemblages recovered at Hadar, Sterkfontein, and Makapansgat, and comparing it to that seen in all extant large hominoid taxa. Because the species is the most fundamental unit in biological and phylogenetic studies, determining species boundaries in the early hominid fossil record is imperative to all other analyses involving hominid biology, evolution, and behavior. Recent discoveries and analyses have increased the perceived amount of variation in hominids, some of which has been interpreted as indicating divergent locomotor behaviors among species. Accurate assessment of species boundaries is more important than ever in order to critically evaluate these claims, to trace the trajectory of morphological and behavioral change among early hominids, and to accurately estimate the variability upon which selection acted to produce our genus, Homo. Previous attempts to determine species boundaries have relied primarily on the assessment of craniodental remains and have often produced conflicting results. Recently, however, it has been demonstrated that postcranial data validly reflect the molecular phylogeny of extant primates. Unfortunately, the early hominid fossil record is composed primarily of isolated skeletal elements from numerous individuals. By combining pairs of these elements from presumably different individuals, variation in body proportions can be assessed using nonparametric density estimation. This method is well established in other fields, but has never been applied to paleoanthropological problems. It will allow the thorough exploitation of the postcranial fossil assemblages and will shed significant light on questions of taxonomy and phylogeny in Australopithecus. Additionally, not only is this research expected to help clarify species boundaries in these early hominids, it will also significantly contribute to the understanding of both human and ape postcranial proportional skeletal variation.This research will have several broad impacts. First, it will advance the graduate training of the student. It will also develop a novel approach to studying variability. Third, it will establish a method that holds great promise for other areas of anthropology in which the recognition of individual skeletons from commingled skeletal assemblages is desired, such as in forensics and bioarchaeology.

这项研究的具体目标是使用一种新的方法来评估人类南方古猿属的物种边界。 这将通过评估在哈达尔，Sterkfontein和Makapansgat发现的化石组合中无关联个体的颅后骨骼比例的变化来实现，并将其与所有现存的大型类人猿分类群进行比较。 由于物种是生物学和系统发育研究中最基本的单位，因此在早期人科化石记录中确定物种边界对于所有其他涉及人科生物学、进化和行为的分析都是必不可少的。 最近的发现和分析增加了人类的变异量，其中一些被解释为表明物种之间的运动行为不同。 准确评估物种边界比以往任何时候都更重要，以便批判性地评估这些主张，追踪早期原始人的形态和行为变化轨迹，并准确估计选择产生我们的属，人属的变异性。 以前试图确定物种边界主要依赖于颅齿骨遗骸的评估，往往产生相互矛盾的结果。 然而，最近的研究表明，颅后数据有效地反映了现存灵长类动物的分子系统发育。 不幸的是，早期人科化石记录主要是由来自许多个体的孤立的骨骼元素组成的。 通过结合对这些元素可能不同的个人，身体比例的变化可以使用非参数密度估计进行评估。 这种方法在其他领域已经很成熟，但从未应用于古人类学问题。 它将允许彻底开发的颅后化石组合，并将在南方古猿的分类学和系统发育的问题有重要意义的光。 此外，这项研究不仅有望帮助澄清这些早期原始人类的物种界限，还将大大有助于了解人类和猿类的颅后比例骨骼变异。这项研究将产生多项广泛的影响。 首先，它将推进学生的研究生培养。 它还将开发一种研究变异性的新方法。第三，它将建立一种方法，在人类学的其他领域，如法医学和生物考古学，从混合的骨骼组合中识别个体骨骼是必要的。