Doctoral Disseration Improvement: Ecological Determinants of Morphological Integration in the Primate Face

形态整合是指与功能、发育和结构相关的解剖性状比不相关性状具有更高相关性的趋势。功能相关性状之间的协变是适应性的，可以通过促进或限制某些进化路线来影响形态变化的方向和速度。虽然功能整合的效用被隐含地假设，但推动其演变的因素仍然知之甚少。该项目建立在形态整合和生物力学数十年研究的基础上：1)测试饮食和喂养器具整合之间是否存在因果联系，重点是食物的材料特性施加的限制；2)评估整合和性别二态之间存在联系的证据及其对性别特定生长差异的依赖。该项目提供了几个主要高级灵长类群体内头骨整合的模式和程度的综合图景，这些群体在开发具有机械抗性的食物方面表现出种间差异。博物馆标本的虚拟头骨模型是用激光扫描仪生成的。采用先进的统计方法对整体性进行比较评估，旨在量化和比较形状变化。一个大型的比较数据集正在建设中，并将公开提供，这样将补充相应的生态数据集。该项目有可能促进生物和人类学的几个领域之间的跨学科合作，即生物力学、灵长类生态学和进化形态学。这对重建人类亲属和祖先之间的进化关系具有重要意义，因为早期人类的一个主要群体--南方古猿--表现出大量新的面部特征，这些特征被认为是适应食用机械抵抗食物的。该项目还将支持一位职业生涯早期的女科学家的研究活动。

Morphological integration is the tendency of functionally, developmentally and structurally-related anatomical traits to share higher correlations than unrelated traits. Covariation among functionally-related traits is adaptive and can influence the direction and rate of morphological change by facilitating or limiting certain lines of evolution. Although the utility of functional integration is implicitly assumed, the factors driving its evolution remain poorly understood. This project builds upon decades of research in morphological integration and biomechanics by: 1) testing for the existence of a causal link between diet and integration in the feeding apparatus, with a focus on the constraints imposed by the material properties of food, and 2) evaluating the evidence for the existence of a link between integration and sexual dimorphism and its dependence on sex-specific growth differences. The project provides a comprehensive picture of the patterns and magnitudes of skull integration within several major groups of higher primates that exhibit interspecific differences regarding the exploitation of mechanically resistant foods. Virtual skull models of museum specimens are generated with a laser scanner. A comparative assessment of integration is undertaken with advanced statistical methods designed to quantify and compare shape variation. A large comparative dataset is under construction and will be made publicly available, and as such will complement corresponding ecological datasets.This project has the potential to promote interdisciplinary collaborations between several domains of the biological and anthropological sciences, namely biomechanics, primate ecology and evolutionary morphology. It has important implications for the reconstruction of evolutionary relationships among human relatives and ancestors, because a major group of early humans, the australopithecines, exhibit a large number of novel facial traits that are thought to be adaptations for consuming mechanically resistant foods. This project will also support the research activities of an early-career female scientist.