Socioecological factors and patterns of growth and development in two gorilla species

两种大猩猩的社会生态因素和生长发育模式

• 批准号: 1520221
• 负责人: Shannon McFarlin
• 金额: $ 37.15万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-15 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1520221&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Socioecological; factors; patterns; growth; development

A central challenge in human evolutionary studies is to understand when, how and in what social and ecological context unique features of modern human life history evolved, including our early age at weaning, prolonged period of slow childhood growth, and late age at first reproduction. These key elements of our life histories are proposed underlie key shifts in human cognitive and behavioral evolution. Our closest living relatives, the great apes, provide critical comparisons for investigating human life history evolution, but current knowledge of their physical growth patterns remains overwhelmingly derived from captive studies and from chimpanzees. This project uses non-invasive methods to study growth and development in two long-term study populations of wild gorillas, for which there are very few existing data. The outcome of this research will significantly advance our understanding of comparative great ape development and will critically inform fundamental questions about the evolutionary origins of modern human life history. In addition, the research will result in a valuable new dataset of interest to researchers across several disciplines, and support important efforts in primate conservation, student training, research infrastructure, and international collaboration. This research employs a novel combination of non-invasive methods to integrate morphological, physiological, and behavioral data to generate a comprehensive understanding of the manner in which observed differences in life history and socioecology interact with variation in physical ontogeny within and among ecologically distinct populations of wild gorillas. Data to be collected from Karisoke mountain gorillas (N=115; 0-18 years, N=80 based on current demographics) include measures of morphological growth and development (dental emergence, linear body dimensions, muscle mass via urinary creatinine), maternal and offspring energetics and diet (urinary C-peptide, suckling rate and bout duration, diet composition and nutritional content), maternal dominance status and parity, and other measures of behavior (e.g., activity budgets, daily travel distance) and health. These data will be partnered with measures of dental and somatic growth determined from a naturally accumulated skeletal sample at this site. Comparative morphological and behavioral data for wild western lowland gorillas are from the Mbeli Bai Study, Republic of Congo (N=140; 0-18 years, N=50). The project aims to: 1) provide the first data on physical ontogeny in wild mountain gorillas of known age, and test hypothesized socioecological factors influencing variation in development and life history between mountain and western gorillas; 2) test maternal energetics, nutrition and other effects on variation in offspring dental and somatic development within mountain gorillas; 3) test relationships between measures of morphological development and key behavioral and reproductive life history measures in mountain gorillas; and 4) test whether the timing of developmental milestones assessed from skeletal remains differs significantly from those determined from surviving members of the same population. Results will yield a more comprehensive understanding of how and why dental, somatic, reproductive, and behavioral milestones co-vary in closely-related great ape taxa, and by shedding light on how individual variability in life history may be mediated by offspring growth, improve our understanding of reproductive (and thus, evolutionary) outcomes of ontogenetic variation. Further, by generating a comprehensive model of development and life history in these extant populations, and testing the accuracy of our life history inferences from an associated skeletal assemblage, our results are expected to significantly inform approaches to studying life history in fossil contexts.

人类进化研究的一个核心挑战是了解现代人类生命史的独特特征何时、如何以及在何种社会和生态背景下进化，包括我们断奶的早期、童年时期长期缓慢的生长以及第一次繁殖的晚期。 我们生活史的这些关键要素被认为是人类认知和行为进化的关键转变的基础。 我们现存的近亲类人猿为研究人类生命史进化提供了重要的比较，但目前对其身体生长模式的了解仍然绝大多数来自圈养研究和黑猩猩。该项目采用非侵入性方法研究两个长期研究野生大猩猩种群的生长和发育，这方面的现有数据很少。这项研究的结果将极大地增进我们对类人猿相对发育的理解，并将批判性地揭示有关现代人类生命史进化起源的基本问题。 此外，该研究还将产生多个学科的研究人员感兴趣的有价值的新数据集，并支持灵长类动物保护、学生培训、研究基础设施和国际合作方面的重要努力。这项研究采用了一种新颖的非侵入性方法组合来整合形态、生理和行为数据，以全面了解观察到的生活史和社会生态学差异与野生大猩猩生态不同种群内部和之间的物理个体发育变化相互作用的方式。从卡里索克山地大猩猩（N = 115；0-18岁，N = 80，基于当前人口统计数据）收集的数据包括形态生长和发育的测量（牙齿萌出、线性身体尺寸、通过尿肌酐测定的肌肉质量）、母体和后代能量和饮食（尿C肽、哺乳率和发作持续时间、饮食成分和营养成分）、母体优势状态和 平等以及其他行为衡量标准（例如活动预算、每日旅行距离）和健康。这些数据将与根据该地点自然积累的骨骼样本确定的牙齿和躯体生长测量值相结合。 野生西部低地大猩猩的形态和行为比较数据来自刚果共和国 Mbeli Bai 研究（N=140；0-18 岁，N=50）。 该项目的目的是：1）提供已知年龄野生山地大猩猩身体个体发育的第一批数据，并测试影响山地大猩猩和西部大猩猩发育和生活史差异的假设社会生态因素； 2) 测试母体能量、营养和其他对山地大猩猩后代牙齿和躯体发育变化的影响； 3）测试山地大猩猩形态发育指标与关键行为和繁殖生活史指标之间的关系； 4) 测试从骨骼遗骸评估的发育里程碑的时间是否与从同一种群的幸存成员确定的发育里程碑的时间显着不同。 结果将更全面地了解牙齿、体细胞、生殖和行为里程碑在密切相关的类人猿类群中如何以及为何共同变化，并通过揭示生命史中的个体变异如何通过后代生长介导，提高我们对个体发育变异的生殖（从而进化）结果的理解。 此外，通过生成这些现存种群的发育和生活史的综合模型，并测试我们从相关骨骼组合中得出的生活史推论的准确性，我们的结果预计将为研究化石背景下的生活史的方法提供重要信息。

项目成果

Facial asymmetry tracks genetic diversity among Gorilla subspecies.

• DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2021.2564
• 发表时间: 2022-02-23
• 期刊: Proceedings. Biological sciences
• 作者: McGrath K;Eriksen AB;García-Martínez D;Galbany J;Gómez-Robles A;Massey JS;Fatica LM;Glowacka H;Arbenz-Smith K;Muvunyi R;Stoinski TS;Cranfield MR;Gilardi K;Shalukoma C;de Merode E;Gilissen E;Tocheri MW;McFarlin SC;Heuzé Y
• 通讯作者: Heuzé Y

Unexpected terrestrial hand posture diversity in wild mountain gorillas

野生山地大猩猩意外的陆地手势多样性

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23404
• 发表时间: 2018
• 期刊: American Journal of Physical Anthropology
• 影响因子: 2.8
• 作者: Thompson, Nathan E.;Ostrofsky, Kelly R.;McFarlin, Shannon C.;Robbins, Martha M.;Stoinski, Tara S.;Almécija, Sergio
• 通讯作者: Almécija, Sergio

Quantifying linear enamel hypoplasia in Virunga Mountain gorillas and other great apes

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23436
• 发表时间: 2018-06-01
• 期刊: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
• 影响因子: 2.8
• 作者: McGrath, Kate;El-Zaatari, Sireen;McFarlin, Shannon C.
• 通讯作者: McFarlin, Shannon C.

A radiographic study of permanent molar development in wild Virunga mountain gorillas of known chronological age from Rwanda: KRALICK et al.

对卢旺达已知年龄的野生维龙加山地大猩猩永久磨牙发育的放射照相研究：KRALICK 等人。

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23192
• 发表时间: 2017
• 期刊: American Journal of Physical Anthropology
• 影响因子: 2.8
• 作者: Kralick, Alexandra E.;Loring Burgess, M.;Glowacka, Halszka;Arbenz-Smith, Keely;McGrath, Kate;Ruff, Christopher B.;Chan, King Chong;Cranfield, Michael R.;Stoinski, Tara S.;Bromage, Timothy G.
• 通讯作者: Bromage, Timothy G.