Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ontogenetic changes in primate manual and pedal trabecular architecture

人类在许多方面都是灵长类动物中独一无二的，包括我们是两足动物(直立行走)，我们的身体需要很长时间才能达到成年的大小和形状。根据两足动物的证据，我们的原始人祖先被归类为原始人，但关于原始人两足动物在生长和发育方面的知识相对较少。这个博士论文项目将使用比较的灵长类骨骼材料来评估手部和脚部骨骼在生长过程中如何随着运动(运动)行为的变化而变化。这项研究将通过应用于原始人化石记录，并为骨骼和生长的临床研究提供信息，促进关于生长如何影响成人骨骼的知识。该项目还将培训未来的科学家，向不同范围的当地学生提供K-12科学课程内容，并将3D数字数据提供给在线数据库。研究人员将使用微型计算机断层扫描和小梁骨测量(作为运动的替代)对五个牙齿定义的年龄组的现代灵长类动物手脚中的多种元素进行比较分析，以实现以下目的：1)描述系统发育背景下小梁变化的个体发生轨迹，因为它与代表几种运动模式的灵长类动物的已知行为变化有关；2)调查小梁骨中未被探索的系统发育信号与年龄的关系；3)提高对包括现代人在内的灵长类个体发育的进化模式和适应意义的理解；4)在与现代分类群比较的基础上重建个体发育上的人的运动行为。该项目的结果将有助于解决关于原始人进化的长期争论，并更好地为未来灵长类个体发育、形态、功能、系统学和运动的研究提供信息。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。

Humans are unique among primates in many ways, including that we are bipedal (walk upright) and our bodies take a long time to reach adult size and shape. Our hominin ancestors are categorized as such based on evidence for bipedality, but relatively little is known about hominin bipedalism with respect to growth and development. This doctoral dissertation project will use comparative primate skeletal material to assess how hand and foot bones change during growth in response to changes in locomotor (movement) behaviors. The research will advance knowledge about how growth impacts adult bone, with application to the hominin fossil record and the potential to inform clinical research on bone and growth. The project will also train future scientists, provide K-12 science curriculum content to a diverse range of local students, and contribute 3D digital data to online databases.The researchers will use micro-computed tomography and comparative analyses of trabecular bone measurements (as a proxy for locomotion) for multiple elements in the hands and feet of five modern primates in dentally-defined age groups, in order to accomplish the following: 1) describe ontogenetic trajectories of trabecular change in a phylogenetic context as it relates to known behavioral changes in primates representing several locomotor modes; 2) investigate the unexplored relationship of phylogenetic signal and age in trabecular bone; 3) improve understanding of the evolutionary pattern and adaptive significance of primate locomotor ontogeny, including modern humans; and 4) reconstruct hominin locomotor behavior over ontogeny based on comparisons to modern taxa. The results of this project will help address longstanding debates about hominin evolution and better inform future studies of primate ontogeny, form, function, systematics, and locomotion.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.