Locomotor Behavior and Limb Bone Structure in Gorilla

大猩猩的运动行为和四肢骨结构

• 批准号: 1316104
• 负责人: Christopher Ruff
• 金额: $ 5.71万
• 依托单位: Johns Hopkins University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-15 至 2017-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1316104&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Locomotor; Behavior; Limb; Bone; Structure

Recent fossil discoveries have provided increasing evidence that early human ancestors engaged in a variety of forms of locomotion, combining some type of terrestrial bipedal walking with varying degrees of arboreal behavior. It has been difficult to interpret these differences, however, in part because we have very limited modern analogies to compare with the fossil forms. The goal of the present study is to determine how differences in locomotor behavior in modern gorillas are related to differences in skeletal characteristics, in order to better reconstruct the locomotion of early humans from their fossil remains. Gorillas constitute a group of closely related species and subspecies that have recently diversified, both genetically and ecologically. Eastern mountain gorillas inhabit high altitude environments that encourage very little arboreal climbing behavior, while western lowland gorillas inhabit rainforest environments where climbing is a common activity. There also is a geographically intermediate group of gorillas that inhabits both high and low elevations and that shows a mixture of locomotor behaviors. Using museum specimens from varying gorilla populations, limb bone structural properties will be determined using computed tomography and other measurements, and compared between the different groups. It is hypothesized that limb bone strength proportions will more closely reflect differences in locomotor behavior than will other skeletal characteristics. Growth studies of western lowland and mountain gorillas also will be carried out and compared, using juvenile skeletal material from the same populations. It is known from behavioral studies that mountain gorillas undergo a change in locomotor behavior during growth, becoming less arboreal as they become older, while this is less true for western lowland gorillas. It is hypothesized that limb bone strength proportions in the two groups will be more similar in infancy and diverge thereafter. This project will add significantly to our understanding of genetic and environmental effects on skeletal morphology and growth. It involves an international collaboration between the PI and researchers in Belgium and Finland, and provides training for two graduate students. The data generated by the study also will promote understanding of living gorilla ecology and population history, which will aid in conservation efforts for these Endangered species.

最近的化石发现提供了越来越多的证据，表明早期人类祖先参与了各种形式的运动，将某种类型的陆地两足动物行走与不同程度的树栖行为结合在一起。然而，很难解释这些差异，部分原因是我们没有非常有限的现代类比来与化石形式相比较。本研究的目的是确定现代大猩猩运动行为的差异与骨骼特征的差异之间的关系，以便更好地从化石遗骸中重建早期人类的运动。大猩猩构成了一组密切相关的物种和亚种，最近在遗传和生态上都发生了多样化。东部山地大猩猩生活在高海拔环境中，很少有树栖攀登行为，而西部低地大猩猩生活在热带雨林环境中，攀登是一种常见的活动。还有一类在地理上居中的大猩猩，既生活在高海拔，也生活在低海拔地区，表现出混合的运动行为。使用来自不同大猩猩种群的博物馆标本，将使用计算机断层扫描和其他测量来确定四肢骨骼结构特性，并在不同组之间进行比较。据推测，与其他骨骼特征相比，肢体骨骼强度比例将更接近地反映运动行为的差异。还将使用来自相同种群的幼年骨骼材料，对西部低地大猩猩和山地大猩猩的生长进行研究和比较。从行为研究中得知，山地大猩猩在生长过程中会经历运动行为的变化，随着年龄的增长，它们在树上的适应性变得不那么强，而西部低地大猩猩则不是这样。据推测，在婴儿期，两组人的四肢骨强度比例将更加相似，此后则有所不同。这个项目将大大增加我们对遗传和环境对骨骼形态和生长的影响的了解。它涉及国际和平研究所与比利时和芬兰的研究人员之间的国际合作，并为两名研究生提供培训。这项研究产生的数据还将促进人们对现存大猩猩生态和种群历史的了解，这将有助于保护这些濒危物种。