Doctoral Dissertation Research: Weaned Age Variation and Trace Element Distributions in Primate Teeth

博士论文研究：灵长类动物牙齿的断奶年龄变化和微量元素分布

• 批准号: 1751608
• 负责人: Shannon McFarlin
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 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: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-03-15 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1751608&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Weaned; Age

For our human ancestors, a shift toward earlier age at weaning may have contributed to higher reproductive success and population growth. However, the evolutionary context of this adaptive shift is not fully understood, in part because of methodological constraints in obtaining evidence of weaning from the fossil record. This doctoral dissertation project will analyze chemical signatures preserved in the teeth of wild mountain gorillas to determine how those signatures may be related to weaning and socioecological factors. Findings from this project could then serve as a foundation for applying this approach to the human fossil record. This project will include scientific training and mentorship of students, including individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. It will also bolster research collaborations, support public science outreach and education, and inform ongoing primate conservation efforts. The investigators will test a developing method for reconstructing the timing of early-life dietary transitions from the distribution of calcium-normalized strontium and barium intensities in teeth, and to investigate weaning age variation within a single well-documented wild population of Virunga mountain gorillas from Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. The chemical signature of mountain gorilla food resources will be characterized in order to provide a context for interpreting variation in enamel and dentine barium and strontium intensities. Estimated weaned age from trace element analysis will then be compared to longitudinal records on wild mountain gorilla diet and suckling. The following questions will be addressed: 1) How well do trace element distributions in teeth correspond to behavioral observations of suckling and other metrics for determining weaning age (e.g., interbirth interval)? and 2) How does the weaning chemical signature vary within a wild mountain gorilla population? The ability to partner behavioral and chemical data from individuals in this population represents a unique opportunity to test an emerging methodology for recovering relatively high resolution evidence of weaning in the human fossil record.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

对于我们的人类祖先来说，断奶年龄提前可能有助于提高繁殖成功率和人口增长。然而，这种适应性转变的进化背景尚未完全了解，部分原因是从化石记录中获取断奶证据的方法上受到限制。该博士论文项目将分析野生山地大猩猩牙齿中保存的化学特征，以确定这些特征与断奶和社会生态因素之间的关系。该项目的研究结果可以作为将该方法应用于人类化石记录的基础。 该项目将包括对学生的科学培训和指导，其中包括来自 STEM 领域代表性不足的群体的个人。 它还将加强研究合作，支持公共科学推广和教育，并为正在进行的灵长类动物保护工作提供信息。 研究人员将测试一种正在开发的方法，用于根据牙齿中钙标准化的锶和钡强度的分布来重建生命早期饮食转变的时间，并调查来自卢旺达火山国家公园的单个有据可查的野生维龙加山地大猩猩种群的断奶年龄变化。将对山地大猩猩食物资源的化学特征进行表征，以便为解释牙釉质和牙本质钡和锶强度的变化提供背景。然后将微量元素分析估计的断奶年龄与野生山地大猩猩饮食和哺乳的纵向记录进行比较。将解决以下问题：1）牙齿中的微量元素分布与哺乳行为观察和确定断奶年龄（例如，出生间隔）的其他指标的对应程度如何？ 2) 野生山地大猩猩种群的断奶化学特征有何变化？结合该人群个体的行为和化学数据的能力代表了一个独特的机会，可以测试一种新兴方法，以在人类化石记录中恢复相对高分辨率的断奶证据。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。