Unlocking the hard tissue record of primate adaptability to environmental change

解锁灵长类动物适应环境变化的硬组织记录

• 批准号: 1640477
• 负责人: Shannon McFarlin
• 金额: $ 39.4万
• 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: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640477&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Unlocking; hard; tissue; record; primate

Modern humans have been able adapt to a diverse range of natural environments, and non-human primates can provide relevant models for understanding the evolutionary origins of this adaptive versatility in humans. This project will investigate variability in growth patterns and diet in response to early life environments, using climate, behavioral, and skeletal data for savanna baboons. The research will advance knowledge about relationships between life history flexibility and environmental variability in the human and non-human primate evolutionary record. The project also will support broader participation of underrepresented groups in STEM research, student mentoring and training, and public engagement through Smithsonian Institution programs and exhibits. Infrastructure for research and education will be enhanced by establishing the first available skeletal collection representing primates from a well-documented savannah habitat, thought to have been an important environment shaping early human adaptation. Results from the study will be communicated online, and to local wildlife managers. Key questions in biological anthropology concern the role that environmental variability played in shaping modern human behavior and life history, which increases fertility and maximizes offspring investment over a prolonged juvenile dependency. Developmental plasticity, including the capacity to respond to environmental change through shifts in growth rates, maturational timing, and other traits, is a proposed mechanism underlying the modern human life history strategy. However, the evolutionary origins and ecological context of life history flexibility in the human lineage remain poorly understood. This project integrates long-term climate data with developmental, behavioral and ecological data in wild baboons from a single, highly dynamic environment in the Amboseli basin, Kenya, to test how early life physical and social/maternal environments influence (1) hard tissue microanatomical parameters of dental and body size development, and (2) tooth carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures of diet quality and composition. Specifically, this research investigates whether offspring born into low rainfall and poor maternal/social environments experience negative consequences that are detectable in hard tissues, including lower quality diets, reduced investment in physical growth, and increased susceptibility to later-life stress. Elucidating how early environmental challenges in Amboseli baboons are mediated by developmental and behavioral mechanisms will improve understanding of this species' resilience despite significant environmental change. Further, by contributing a framework for deciphering the proximate ecological context of life history variation in hard tissues, this research has transformative potential for investigating relationships between adaptive versatility and environmental change during human evolution.

现代人类已经能够适应各种各样的自然环境，而非人类灵长类动物可以为理解人类这种适应性多样性的进化起源提供相关模型。该项目将利用热带草原狒狒的气候、行为和骨骼数据，研究其生长模式和饮食对早期生活环境的影响。这项研究将促进对人类和非人类灵长类动物进化记录中生命史灵活性和环境变异性之间关系的认识。该项目还将通过史密森学会的项目和展览，支持代表性不足的群体更广泛地参与STEM研究、学生指导和培训，以及公众参与。研究和教育的基础设施将通过建立第一个可用的灵长类动物骨骼收集来加强，这些骨骼来自一个有充分记录的大草原栖息地，被认为是塑造早期人类适应的重要环境。这项研究的结果将在网上公布，并发给当地的野生动物管理者。生物人类学的关键问题涉及环境变化在塑造现代人类行为和生活史中的作用，这增加了生育能力，并在长期的青少年依赖中最大化了后代投资。发育可塑性，包括通过生长速率、成熟时间和其他特征的变化来应对环境变化的能力，是现代人类生活史策略的一种潜在机制。然而，人类谱系中生命史灵活性的进化起源和生态背景仍然知之甚少。该项目将长期气候数据与肯尼亚安博塞利盆地单一高动态环境中野生狒狒的发育、行为和生态数据相结合，以测试生命早期的物理和社会/母亲环境如何影响(1)牙齿和身体大小发育的硬组织微观解剖参数，以及(2)牙齿碳和氮稳定同位素特征的饮食质量和组成。具体来说，本研究调查了在低降雨量和恶劣的母亲/社会环境中出生的后代是否会在硬组织中产生可检测到的负面影响，包括低质量的饮食、身体发育方面的投资减少以及对晚年压力的易感性增加。阐明安博塞利狒狒早期环境挑战是如何通过发育和行为机制介导的，将有助于了解该物种在重大环境变化下的适应能力。此外，通过提供一个框架来解读硬组织生活史变化的近似生态背景，本研究具有探索人类进化过程中适应性多功能性与环境变化之间关系的变革潜力。