Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dental Topography in Primate and Rodent Radiations

了解灵长类适应模式如何与生态机会和竞争有关，对于随着时间的推移重建灵长类和原始人的生物多样性非常重要。这一博士论文项目将使用定量和比较框架来研究始新世和中新世灵长类化石对骨骼形状和多样性的生态压力，并与啮齿动物化石类群进行比较，以促进对灵长类适应的了解。该项目包括对本科生的培训和指导，包括来自STEM研究中代表性不足的群体的培训和指导，面向高中生的外联活动，以及通过形态资源公开共享扫描数据。该项目将广泛地(比较灵长类和啮齿动物)和具体(比较不同的灵长类分支)研究灵长类分支的适应性变异性和形态多样性。将使用两个大陆的中始新世-中中新世特有灵长类和啮齿动物的牙齿地形来量化差异和形态类型。牙科地形将通过时间重建，并使用系统发育比较方法进行分析，允许以设定的间隔统计比较不同支系和陆地之间的差异和地形类型。具体地说，该项目将1)测试非洲阿拉伯和南美洲之间类人型灵长类动物的多样化模式是否随着时间的推移而显著不同，并将这些模式与相同大陆上的水龙类啮齿动物的模式进行比较，2)确定两大洲灵长类和啮齿动物谱系中牙齿地形形态类型的变化，并评估这些变化在时间、程度和大小上是否有相似和/或不同。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding how patterns of primate adaptation relate to ecological opportunity and competition is important for reconstructing primate and hominin biodiversity through time. This doctoral dissertation project will advance knowledge about primate adaptation using a quantitative and comparative framework to examine ecological pressures on skeletal shape and diversity for Eocene and Miocene fossil primates, with comparison to fossil rodent taxa. This project involves training and mentoring of undergraduate students, including from groups underrepresented in STEM research, outreach activities to high school students, and public sharing of scanned data through Morphosource.This project will examine the adaptive variability and morphological diversity of primate clades broadly (comparing primates to rodents) and specifically (comparing different primate clades). Disparity and morphotype will be quantified using dental topography of middle Eocene - middle Miocene endemic primates and rodents from both continents. Dental topography will be reconstructed through time and analyzed using phylogenetic comparative methods, allowing for the statistical comparison of disparity and morphotype between different clades and landmasses through time at set intervals. Specifically, this project will 1) test whether the diversification patterns of anthropoid primates differ significantly through time between Afro-Arabia and South America, and compare these patterns to those of hystricognath rodents on the same continents, and 2) identify shifts in dental topographic morphotype throughout the primate and rodent lineages of both continents and assess whether these shifts share similarities and/or differences in timing, degree, and magnitude.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.