NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

造鸟：鸟类身体的发育和进化结构在获得飞行能力的过程中，鸟类和它们的恐龙祖先经历了脊椎动物历史上一些最戏剧性的形态和功能变化。飞行是最具挑战性的运动形式，而活着的成年鸟类具有独特的解剖特征，使它们能够满足空中运动的需求。早期有翼恐龙缺乏这些特征，因此，长期以来，人们一直认为早期恐龙没有动力飞行的能力。然而，有着恐龙般的身体结构的雏鸟通过拍打着拍子爬上斜坡，甚至短暂地飞行来躲避捕食者。这是如何实现的？虽然成年动物的运动已经得到了很好的研究，但对具有过渡(发展或进化)解剖学的动物的运动却知之甚少。许多特征在发展和进化过程中会发生变化，分析它们对运动的影响是具有挑战性的。然而，使用SIMM这样的程序进行生物力学建模，科学家可以通过单独操作解剖参数来确定它们的影响，从而探索解剖设计变化的功能后果。以鸟类和恐龙为例，该项目旨在连接生物学、古生物学和工程学学科，以探索运动能力和生态学中发展和进化转变的生物力学基础。主要培训目标是：学习生物工程方法来检查形式-功能关系，并获得制作博物馆展品的经验，让学生看到科学的行动。预计的结果包括一个展览，帮助学生建立一个数字恐龙，探索解剖学的变化可能如何影响运动，并向学术和公众观众展示。

Building a bird: developmental and evolutionary construction of the avian body planIn the process of acquiring the ability to fly, birds and their dinosaur ancestors have undertaken some of the most dramatic morphological and functional transformations in vertebrate history. Flight is the most challenging form of locomotion, and living adult birds have unique anatomical features that permit them to meet the demands of aerial locomotion. Early winged dinosaurs lacked many of these features, and consequently, it has long been assumed that early dinosaurs were incapable of powered flight. Yet baby birds with dinosaur-like anatomies elude predators by flap-running up slopes and even briefly flying. How is this accomplished? Whereas locomotion of adult animals is well studied, very little is known about locomotion of animals with transitional (developing or evolving) anatomies. Many features change during development and evolution, and parsing out their effects on locomotion is challenging. However, biomechanical modeling with programs like SIMM allows scientists to explore the functional consequences of changes in anatomical design, by manipulating anatomical parameters individually to determine their effects. Using birds and dinosaurs as a case study, this project aims to bridge biological, paleontological, and engineering disciplines to explore biomechanical underpinnings of developmental and evolutionary transformations in locomotor capacity and ecology.The primary training objectives are: learning bioengineering approaches to examine form-function relationships and gaining experience making museum exhibits that let students see science in action. Anticipated outcomes include an exhibit that helps students build a digital dinosaur to explore how changes in anatomy might affect locomotion and presentations to academic and public audiences.