COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Natural Selection on Growth and Locomotor Development in Eastern Cottontail Rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus)

青少年阶段的生活可能特别危险。未成熟的动物必须在与成年动物相同的环境中生存，尽管它们的体型较小，肌肉较弱，身体能力也受到其他与生长有关的限制。因为，根据定义，青少年还没有繁殖，人们应该期待强大的选择机制，可能会抵消这些与年龄有关的身体表现限制，使个体达到成年，繁殖，从而保持进化适应性。拟议中的研究将结合联合收割机措施的肌肉骨骼生长，体能，并在东部棉尾兔（Sylvilagus floridanus）生存明确测试大规模的假设哺乳动物的生长和发育的适应性。东部棉尾鼠在三周大时就可以独立于它们的母亲，并且在生命的第一年里会经历很大的捕食压力，这使它们成为解决这些问题的理想物种。本研究收集的基本数据将更好地了解自然选择如何对肌肉骨骼的生长和发育做出反应，从而对进化过程本身提供新的见解。这项研究分为三个具体目标。首先，研究人员将收集东部棉尾鼠肌肉骨骼生长的详细测量数据，包括肌肉和骨骼强度的详细数据。其次，研究者将产生身体表现能力的定量测量（即，加速和冲刺能力）。最后，无线电跟踪数据将结合生态数据的家庭范围大小，栖息地质量和捕食风险的经验文件在幼年兔的生存。这些数据将使研究人员能够全面检查肌肉骨骼解剖结构，身体表现和进化适应性之间的关联，以正式测试被认为有助于促进青少年生存的特征的适应性意义。该项目将在三个相关机构之间建立跨学科合作，帮助在俄亥俄州东北部建立研究和培训网络。资助还将为本科生提供学习体内生物力学和野外生态学方法的机会。这样的机会很少，是学生的主要教育资源。在此项目中收集的Skeleton材料将捐赠给当地博物馆和学校，提供宝贵的公共教育和研究工具。最后，在这项研究中产生的生存率估计可以用来通知俄亥俄州自然资源部的政策决定，以建立可接受的数字狩猎和诱捕整个俄亥俄州。

The juvenile stage of life can be particularly perilous. Immature animals must survive in the same environments as adults despite smaller body size, weaker muscles and other growth-related limitations on physical ability. Because, by definition, juveniles have yet to reproduce, one should expect strong selection for mechanisms that could potentially offset these age-related limits on physical performance, allowing individuals to reach adulthood, reproduce, and thus maintain evolutionary fitness. The proposed research will combine measures of musculoskeletal growth, physical performance, and survivorship in eastern cottontail rabbits (Sylvilagus floridanus) to explicitly test broad-scale hypotheses about the adaptive nature of mammalian growth and development. Eastern cottontails are independent of their mothers by three weeks of age and experience high predation pressure during the first year of life, making them an ideal species in which to address these issues. The fundamental data collected in this study will provide a greater understanding of how natural selection operates on musculoskeletal growth and development in response to predation, providing novel insight into the process of evolution itself. This research is organized into three specific aims. First, researchers will collect detailed measures of musculoskeletal growth in eastern cottontails, including detailed data on muscle and bone strength. Second, the investigators will generate quantitative measures of physical performance ability (i.e., acceleration and sprinting capacities) in juvenile and adult rabbits. Finally, radio-tracking data will be combined with ecological data on home range size, habitat quality and predation risk to empirically document survivorship in juvenile rabbits. These data will allow the researchers to holistically examine associations among musculoskeletal anatomy, physical performance and evolutionary fitness, as required to formally test the adaptive significance of the traits thought to promote juvenile survival.This project will create interdisciplinary collaborations among the three institutions involved, helping to foster a network of research and training in northeastern Ohio. Funding will also provide opportunities for undergraduates to learn in vivo biomechanical and field ecology methods. Such opportunities are rare and constitute a major educational resource for students. Skeletal materials gathered during this project will be donated to local museums and schools, providing valuable public educational and research tools. Finally, the survivorship estimates generated during this research can be used to inform the policy decisions of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in order to establish acceptable numbers for hunting and trapping throughout Ohio.