Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ecomorphological Implications of Primate Dietary Variability: An Experimental Model

这项研究开发了一个灵长类动物头骨生长的模型，该模型在一个成熟的实验物种(大鼠)中模拟环境资源的时间波动。新的综合分析涉及成像、形态计量学、组织学和血清学，典型的骨骼形态和生理学与出生后饮食特性和摄食行为的变化有关。这项研究的多学科性质提供了许多独特的机会来发展研究和医疗机构之间的合作，并促进学生的培训。研究结果将在科学和公共论坛上公布，并将对人类头面部健康产生更广泛的影响，因为它与饮食和影响口腔功能的许多疾病有关。人类头骨的进化和功能与食物施加的机械需求密切相关。在整个灵长类和人类进化过程中，这些饮食资源往往是季节性的，导致了难以加工的“后备食物”的周期性消费。这种饮食季节性经常被引用到对化石人类祖先和亲属的生态学解释中，例如类人猿。然而，尽管灵长类饮食在时间和空间上都很复杂，但关于饮食特性的季节性对颅面发育的影响的研究很少。这极大地阻碍了我们对灵长类生态和进化的理解，以及摄食行为对骨生物学和人类颅面健康的影响。为了解决这一重大差距，这项研究使用老鼠来测试随着时间的推移，饮食资源的变化如何在面部潜在的骨骼发育中受到后备食物的影响。这项研究将使用各种成像技术来检查喂食后备食物的动物和没有喂食的动物之间的差异。这些现代方法弥合了基于实验室和现场的灵长类骨骼生长分析之间的差距。纵向方法将阐明行为变异对整个生长期颅面形态和生理的影响，提供对颅骨在多个生物水平上的发育的洞察。更全面地了解环境影响生物形态的方式，将有助于阐明骨骼生物学和饮食可变性之间的联系，

This research develops a model of primate skull growth in a well-established experimental species (rats) that mimics temporal fluctuations in environmental resources. Novel integrative analyses involving imaging, morphological metrics, histology, and serology typify the skeletal morphology and physiology associated with postnatal variation in dietary properties and feeding behavior. The multidisciplinary nature of this study provides a number of unique opportunities to develop collaborations between research and medical facilities, and to promote student training. Results will be disseminated at scientific and public forums, and will have broader implications for human craniofacial health as it relates to diet and numerous disorders affecting oral utility.The evolution and function of the human skull is intimately related to the mechanical demands imposed by food items. Throughout primate and human evolution, these dietary resources have often been seasonal, resulting in the cyclical consumption of difficult-to-process "fallback foods." This dietary seasonality has often been invoked in ecological interpretations of fossil human ancestors and relatives, such as Paranthropus. However, despite the temporal and spatial complexity of primate diets, there is little work related to the impact of seasonality in dietary properties on craniofacial development. This greatly hinders our understanding of primate ecology and evolution as well as the influence of feeding behaviors for bone biology and human craniofacial health. To address this significant gap, this research uses rats to test how changing dietary resources across time are affected by fallback foods in underlying skeletal development of the face. The research will use a variety of imaging techniques to examine differences between those animals that are fed fallback foods and those that are not. Such modern methods bridge the gap between laboratory- and field-based analyses of skeletal growth in primates. A longitudinal approach will elucidate the effect of behavioral variation on craniofacial morphology and physiology across the entire growth period, providing insight into skull development at multiple organismal levels. A more complete understanding of the way environment impacts organismal form will shed light on the association between skeletal biology and dietary variability,