NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

2013 财年 NSF 生物学博士后奖学金

• 批准号: 1308952
• 负责人: Ashley Heers
• 金额: $ 14万
• 依托单位: Heers Ashley M
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Fellowship Award
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2015-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1308952&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: NSF; Postdoctoral; Fellowship; Biology; FY

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.

造一只鸟：鸟类体型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引人注目的形态和功能转变。飞行是最具挑战性的运动形式，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要求。早期的有翼恐龙缺乏许多这些特征，因此，长期以来人们一直认为早期的恐龙没有动力飞行。然而，有着类似鸟类解剖结构的幼鸟通过拍打翅膀跑上斜坡甚至短暂的飞行来躲避捕食者。这是如何实现的？尽管成年动物的运动已经得到了很好的研究，但对于具有过渡（发育或进化）解剖结构的动物的运动却知之甚少。许多特征在发育和进化过程中会发生变化，分析它们对运动的影响具有挑战性。然而，使用SIMM等程序的生物力学建模允许科学家通过单独操纵解剖参数来确定其影响，从而探索解剖设计变化的功能后果。该项目以鸟类和恐龙为案例，旨在将生物学、古生物学和工程学学科联系起来，探索运动能力和生态学中发育和进化转变的生物力学基础。主要培训目标是：学习生物工程学方法来研究形状与功能的关系，并获得制作博物馆展品的经验，让学生看到科学的作用。预期成果包括一个展览，帮助学生建立一个数字恐龙，探索解剖学的变化如何影响运动和学术和公众观众的演示。