Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Modeling the Origins of Primate Sociality: Do Mouse Lemurs Recognize Kin Through Vocalizations?

博士论文改进：模拟灵长类社会性的起源：鼠狐猴通过发声识别亲属吗？

• 批准号: 0961779
• 负责人: Leanne Nash
• 金额: $ 2万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-03-15 至 2012-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0961779&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Modeling; Origins

Arguments of human uniqueness emphasize our complex sociality, unusual cognitive capacities, and language skills, but the timing of the origin of these abilities and their evolutionary causes remain unsolved. Unlike the largely solitary ancestral mammals, the first primates are thought to have maintained social networks, communicating via vocalizations and scent marks. These networks may have facilitated selection for increased cognitive and communicative abilities at the very emergence of the primate order by providing a medium for kin selection (selection caused by behavior benefiting kin). Unfortunately, the mechanisms by which ancestral primates might have recognized kin are unknown. This study will be the first test of vocal recognition of kin in a species used to model ancestral primates, the grey mouse lemur. Innovative, sophisticated methodology includes marking wild lemurs with transponders and conducting playback experiments at feeding platforms containing transponder readers. With respect to intellectual merit, this project is multidisciplinary, encompassing socioecology, anthropology, bioacoustics, conservation, and field methodology. The project will have great theoretical value for reconstructions of primate origins and will investigate the feasibility of developing novel conservation tools using vocalizations to monitor kin groups of small, nocturnal mammals. The broader impacts are in conservation, education and international collaboration. These lemurs are vulnerable, not only because forest degradation in Madagascar is estimated to have exceeded 90% since the arrival of humans, but also because they are not well understood. Increased knowledge of their social systems will help tailor conservation plans to their needs. The co-PI will integrate this project into science education by creating a webpage so her NSF GK-12 students can follow the research as it progresses. The project will develop new collaborations between German, Malagasy, and American researchers. It will train a field assistant and a Malagasy student in skills vital for launching careers in research, conservation, or park management.

人类独特性的论点强调我们复杂的社会性，不寻常的认知能力和语言技能，但这些能力的起源时间及其进化原因仍然没有解决。与大多数独居的哺乳动物祖先不同，第一批灵长类动物被认为保持着社交网络，通过发声和气味标记进行交流。这些网络可能在灵长类动物出现时，通过为亲属选择（由有利于亲属的行为引起的选择）提供媒介，促进了对增强的认知和交流能力的选择。不幸的是，灵长类祖先可能识别亲属的机制尚不清楚。这项研究将是第一次测试一个物种的声音识别亲属用于模拟祖先灵长类动物，灰鼠狐猴。创新的、复杂的方法包括用应答器标记野生狐猴，并在装有应答器阅读器的喂食平台上进行回放实验。关于智力价值，这个项目是多学科的，包括社会生态学，人类学，生物声学，保护和现场方法。该项目将对灵长类起源的重建具有重要的理论价值，并将研究开发新的保护工具的可行性，这些工具使用发声来监测小型夜行哺乳动物的亲属群体。更广泛的影响是在保护，教育和国际合作。这些狐猴是脆弱的，不仅是因为自人类到来以来，马达加斯加的森林退化估计已超过90%，而且还因为它们没有得到很好的了解。增加对他们的社会系统的了解将有助于根据他们的需要制定保护计划。合作PI将通过创建一个网页将该项目整合到科学教育中，以便她的NSF GK-12学生可以随着研究的进展而跟踪研究。该项目将在德国、马达加斯加和美国研究人员之间开展新的合作。它将培训一名现场助理和一名马达加斯加学生掌握在研究、保护或公园管理方面开展职业生涯所必需的技能。