Fallback Food Seasonality and the Plasticity of Craniomandibular Development

食物季节性后退与颅颌发育的可塑性

• 批准号: 1214767
• 负责人: Matthew Ravosa
• 金额: $ 22.01万
• 依托单位: University of Notre Dame
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-06-30 至 2013-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1214767&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Fallback; Food; Seasonality; Plasticity; Craniomandibular

Cranial variation in primates is influenced by masticatory stresses, with taxa relying on stiff and/or tough foods often possessing more robust skulls, jaws and jaw muscles. Most primates exhibit seasonal diets, focusing on difficult-to-process "fallback" foods only part of the year rather than continuously. Indeed, the ecomorphological significance of fallback foods is emerging as one of the key outstanding issues in primate biology and evolution. Unfortunately, the extent to which the seasonal vs. annual processing of such resistant foods might affect variation in cranial growth and form is unknown. Exploring the influence of seasonality in food material properties on skull development is vital for paleobiological reconstructions as well as for understanding the ecological bases of adaptive plasticity and phenotypic variation in the primate skull and feeding apparatus. Thus, this research tests the hypothesis that the long-term frequency of elevated loading during post-weaning ontogeny results in higher growth trajectories and larger adult masticatory proportions. Important similarities exist in the morphology, behavior, function, ontogeny and plasticity of the feeding complex between rabbits and primates that will facilitate such comparisons. Rabbit siblings are raised on diets of different properties, with one group having a control/normal diet, one eating an "annual" fracture-resistant diet, and one subjected to "seasonal" increases in dietary toughness and stiffness to model fluctuations in the reliance on fallback foods. Three postnatal stages are being examined, with cranial variation evaluated via 3D imaging of internal and external anatomy. In bridging the gap between lab- and field-based studies of plasticity and evolution, this research offers a novel and timely assessment of the role of dietary seasonality on cranial ontogeny. A broader impact will be to provide interdisciplinary training for postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate trainees, especially under-represented groups and the local K-12 community. The benefit to society includes collecting data on load-induced responses necessary for understanding how to mimic the growth activity of musculo-skeletal tissues, and for identifying masticatory parameters to be examined in field specimens.

灵长类动物的颅骨变异受到咀嚼压力的影响，依赖坚硬和/或坚硬食物的类群通常拥有更强健的头骨、颌骨和颌骨肌肉。大多数灵长类动物的饮食都是季节性的，它们只在一年中的一部分时间里专注于难以加工的“后备”食物，而不是连续不断地吃。事实上，备用食物的生态形态学意义正在成为灵长类生物和进化中的关键突出问题之一。不幸的是，这种抗性食品的季节性加工与年度加工在多大程度上可能影响颅骨生长和形态的变化尚不清楚。探索食材特性的季节性对颅骨发育的影响，对于古生物重建以及了解灵长类颅骨和摄食器官的适应性可塑性和表型变异的生态基础至关重要。因此，本研究验证了这样一种假设，即断奶后个体发育期间长期频繁的高负荷会导致更高的生长轨迹和更大的成年咀嚼比例。兔子和灵长类动物之间在摄食复合物的形态、行为、功能、个体发生和可塑性方面存在重要的相似性，这将有助于进行这种比较。兔兄弟姐妹在不同性质的饮食中饲养，一组采用控制/正常饮食，一组采用“年度”抗骨折饮食，另一组采用“季节性”增加饮食韧性和硬度，以模拟对备用食物依赖的波动。正在检查三个产后阶段，通过内部和外部解剖的3D成像评估颅骨变异。在可塑性和进化的实验室研究和现场研究之间的桥梁，这项研究提供了一个新颖和及时的评估饮食季节性在颅骨个体发生中的作用。更广泛的影响将是为博士后、研究生和本科生学员，特别是代表性不足的群体和当地K-12社区提供跨学科培训。对社会的好处包括收集关于负载诱发反应的数据，这对于理解如何模拟肌肉骨骼组织的生长活动是必要的，并且对于确定在野外标本中检查的咀嚼参数是必要的。