Integrating genetic, morphological, behavioral and demographic data to investigate primate life history

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Interpreting the human and primate fossil record is complicated by the fact that typically only skeletons and teeth are preserved. Yet many important aspects of primate and human biology are linked to variation in soft tissues, such as the degree of fat storage required for development and growth, or the degree of muscle development required for locomotion or within-species competition. In this project, the researchers will investigate the relationships among skeletons, soft-tissues, and reproduction across the lifespan, in the rhesus monkey population of Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico. The project will advance knowledge about fundamental relationships among form, function, and behavior in non-human primates, which can inform our understanding of past primate and human biology. The project is an important part of research initiatives between New York University (NYU) and the Caribbean Primate Research Center, Puerto Rico, and builds on current initiatives to preserve and curate the Cayo Santiago skeletal collection as a valuable biological data resource. In addition, educational and public access programs will provide many opportunities for underrepresented minority students to participate in STEM research, both in the continental US and in Puerto Rico. The usual absence of soft-tissues from the fossil record presents a big challenge for assessing reproductive life histories from skeletal data in order to estimate the phenotypic variation on which natural selection acted, and to reconstruct the evolution of our species. This study will combine soft-tissue measurements of two entire social groups with detailed analyses of the entire Cayo Santiago adult skeletal collection, demographic, genetic parentage, and behavioral data, collected over more than six decades. The researchers will determine whether and to what extent variation in skeletal traits relates to fleshed measures of body size, body mass, body fat, and muscle size in two groups; determine the genetic and environmental sources of variation in both skeletal and soft tissue traits, and; determine the extent to which skeletal markers and soft tissue markers predict differences in fecundity and longevity in both females and males. The methods will combine morphometric measurement of both soft and hard tissues with quantitative genetic approaches.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.