Macroevolutionary Analyses of Cranial Morphology and Function in Mammals

哺乳动物颅骨形态和功能的宏观进化分析

• 批准号: 1557125
• 负责人: Sharlene Santana
• 金额: $ 67.27万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-04-15 至 2020-03-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1557125&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Macroevolutionary; Analyses; Cranial; Morphology; Function

Mammals comprise over 5,400 species, and exhibit extraordinary anatomical and dietary diversity. It is hypothesized that the great diversity of mammalian species resulted from the evolution of structures associated with an ability to access, consume and process new food resources. However, this hypothesis has not been tested for the majority of mammal groups, and therefore the question of how mammalian diversity arose remains an important, unanswered one. This project will employ a suite of modern tools in the study of anatomy and physical forces associated with feeding (such as skull or cranial anatomy, and chewing or masticatory muscles) to test this hypothesis in three of the most species-rich and ecologically diverse mammal groups: bats, carnivores and primates. The research will generate unprecedented quantitative datasets on the masticatory muscles and the three-dimensional skull anatomy of over 100 species. The researchers will explore the links between these anatomical and functional (internal) factors with external factors (such as food characteristics and diversity) as a way to understand patterns of species diversification. Through this work, the project will create a large public database of mammal 3D cranial morphology, train a diverse group of students, disseminate results through a public museum exhibit, and establish cross-disciplinary collaborations among several young investigators.Morphological and functional adaptations are important drivers of ecological diversification across the Tree of Life. Within mammals, it is hypothesized that many radiations were enabled by the evolution of morphological and functional traits that provided access to new dietary adaptive zones, but quantitative tests of this hypothesis are lacking for the broad diversity of mammals. This gap is partly rooted on the extensive lack of comparative datasets that integrate both the osteological and myological components of the feeding apparatus. These data, which currently exist for less than 2% of mammalian taxa, are critically needed both for an understanding of mammalian masticatory physiology and for the application of diversification analyses that contrast the relative influences of intrinsic versus extrinsic drivers of mammalian radiation. The proposed work will test macroevolutionary hypotheses about ecological diversification by generating the largest comparative datasets to date on the three-dimensional morphology, function and performance of the mammalian feeding apparatus. The team will couple micro-Computed Tomography, gross dissections, geometric morphometric analyses and biomechanical modeling to produce these data across three species-rich and ecologically diverse mammal clades (bats, carnivorans and primates). Phylogenetic comparative analyses will be used to test hypotheses about the influence of dietary selective regimes on the evolution of cranial morphology, function and performance, and their association with lineage diversification. The organismal aspect of the research will illuminate the biomechanics and ecomorphological diversity in mammal groups that are of broad scientific interest. This study will help elucidate the potential drivers of diversification in these groups while creating a foundation for further research on the physiology, biomechanics and evolution of mammal feeding.

哺乳动物包括超过5400种，表现出非常刻薄的解剖学和饮食多样性。假设哺乳动物物种的大量多样性是由于与获取，消费和处理新食物资源的能力相关的结构的演变而产生的。但是，这一假设尚未对大多数哺乳动物组进行检验，因此，如何出现哺乳动物多样性的问题仍然是一个重要的，没有回答的问题。该项目将采用一套现代工具来研究与喂养（例如颅骨或颅骨解剖结构以及咀嚼或咀嚼肌肉）相关的物理力量，以在三个最丰富和生态多样的哺乳动物群中检验这一假设：蝙蝠，食肉动物和灵长类动物。这项研究将在咀嚼肌肉上产生前所未有的定量数据集，并产生100多种超过100种的三维头骨解剖结构。研究人员将探索这些解剖学和功能（内部）因素与外部因素（例如食品特征和多样性）之间的联系，以了解物种多样化的模式。通过这项工作，该项目将创建一个大型的哺乳动物3D颅骨形态的公共数据库，培训一群学生，通过公共博物馆展览进行传播结果，并在几位年轻的研究人员中建立跨学科的合作。跨性别和功能适应是生命之树的生态多样化的重要动力。在哺乳动物中，假设许多辐射是通过形态学和功能性状的演变来实现的，这些特征的演变提供了获得新的饮食自适应区域的机会，但是对于哺乳动物的广泛多样性，缺乏对这种假设的定量测试。该差距部分植根于广泛缺乏比较数据集，这些数据集整合了喂养设备的骨学和心肌组成部分。这些数据目前存在于哺乳动物分类单元的不到2％的情况下，这既需要了解哺乳动物的乳房生理学，又需要对哺乳动物辐射的内在驱动因素与外在驱动因素的相对影响进行多元化分析的应用。拟议的工作将通过生成迄今为止迄今为止的最大比较数据集来检验有关生态多样化的宏观进化假设，该数据集在哺乳动物喂养设备的三维形态，功能和性能上。该团队将融入微型层析成像，总剖析，几何形态分析和生物力学建模，以在三种富含物种和生态多样的哺乳动物进化枝（蝙蝠，食肉动物和灵长类动物）中生成这些数据。系统发育比较分析将用于检验有关饮食选择性制度对颅形态，功能和性能进化的影响的假设，以及它们与谱系多样化的关联。该研究的生物方面将阐明具有广泛科学利益的哺乳动物群体的生物力学和生态学多样性。这项研究将有助于阐明这些群体中潜在的多样化驱动因素，同时为哺乳动物喂养的生理学，生物力学和进化创造基础。