In vivo EMG, bone strain and cineradiography in strepsirrhine primates

灵长类动物的脸呈现出各种各样的形状，尤其是在眼睛所在的骨眼眶周围。目前尚不清楚这种多样性是否反映了对进食的适应或对视觉的适应的差异。最近的研究表明，在进食过程中，轨道周围的骨骼受到的压力很小，并且已经提出了一套关于灵长类动物轨道区域进化的“非进食”解释。也有人提出，在一些灵长类动物中，眼窝区域可能适合抵抗进食力，但在其他灵长类动物中则不然。这里提出的研究将确定猴子、猿和人类之间，以及丛林婴儿之间，在喂食过程中，眼眶区域的功能是否存在差异。与灵长类动物面部形状的多样性相反，灵长类动物似乎以类似的方式移动下颌。这表明，灵长类动物可能是在与其他哺乳动物共享的一种古老、保守的行为模式所限定的范围内进化出形状差异的。这项研究将收集几种灵长类动物同时下颌运动和肌肉活动的数据，以确定骨骼形态的变化是否真的发生了，而灵长类动物移动下颌和激活咀嚼肌肉的方式是否没有发生重大变化。

The faces of primates exhibit a variety of shapes, particularly around the bony orbits, which house the eyes. It is not known whether this variety reflects differences in adaptations to feeding or adaptations to vision. Recent research has suggested that the bones around the orbit are strained very little during feeding, and a suite of "nonfeeding" explanations for the evolution of the primate orbital region have been proposed. It has also been suggested that the orbital region might be adapted for resisting feeding forces in some primates, but not in others. The research proposed here will determine whether there are differences between monkeys, apes and humans on one hand, and bushbabies on the other in the functioning of the orbital region during feeding. In contrast with the diversity in primate facial shape, primates seem to move their jaws in similar ways. This suggests that primates might have evolved their shape differences within the limits dictated by an ancient, conserved, behavior pattern shared with other mammals. This research will collect data on simultaneous jaw movements and muscle activity in several species of primates to determine whether changes in bony form really have proceeded without significant changes in the way primates move their jaws and fire their chewing muscles.