IRES Track I: Comparative Anatomy and Functional Morphology in Cuvier's Paris

IRES Track I：居维叶巴黎的比较解剖学和功能形态学

• 批准号: 1854244
• 负责人: Adam Hartstone-Rose
• 金额: $ 32.82万
• 依托单位: North Carolina State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-04-01 至 2025-03-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1854244&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: IRES; Track; Comparative; Anatomy; Functional

Functional Morphology and Comparative Anatomy are the studies of how bodies work in humans and other animals, disciplines of research that began and continue, to this day, in the collections in Paris. In this IRES project, new generations of students will be taught to test hypotheses across species using cutting-edge tools in functional morphology and comparative biology, subjects that are of interest to the great number of students interested in careers in STEM fields, thus attempting to inspire this focal 21st Century work-force growth in a place that formed the foundation of the discipline over the last many centuries. Approximately seven undergraduate students a year will be recruited from diverse backgrounds (including recruitment from colleges and universities that serve historically underrepresented groups) and trained in techniques that span live animal behavior, muscle dissection, analyses of bones, teeth and skulls and finally how to make inferences about the behavior and abilities of extinct species from the shapes of their fossils. Not only will students learn these technical skills, but through working with senior professors and their international teams of postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, they will learn the "soft skills" of collaborating across academic teams and cultures. Students will gain these skills and earn authorship on professional presentations and potentially publications, giving them the possibly life changing experiences that may form the core of their continued pursuit of STEM interests and careers.The overarching goal of this project is to train diverse cohorts of students in burgeoning 21st century functional morphology and comparative anatomy techniques. Students will be trained in key techniques the US PI's lab (at North Carolina State University) prior to being accompanied to Paris to work in the lab of one of his collaborators at the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle where they will have access to centuries-old collections and the other biological research institutions in the region. There, with the mentorship of the professors and their senior postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, the IRES students will develop independent or group projects that focus on modern approaches to functional morphology and comparative anatomy research questions. These may include 1) behavioral research and experimentation at several zoological facilities (including access to a colony of mouse lemurs, or work with species like the greater bamboo lemur, that are not held in captivity outside of France), 2) dissection work with fresh specimens or specimens from the museum's expansive fluid collection, and analyses of osteological or dental material from 3) modern species or 4) the famous fossil collections also housed in this historically significant museum collection. These studies may ultimately allow the IRES students to use this knowledge about the behavior and anatomy of extant species to evaluate the adaptations of extinct species.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.

功能形态学和比较解剖学是研究人体和其他动物身体如何工作的学科，这些学科的研究始于巴黎的收藏并持续至今。 在这个IRES项目中，新一代的学生将被教导使用功能形态学和比较生物学中的尖端工具来测试跨物种的假设，这些学科对大量对STEM领域的职业感兴趣的学生感兴趣，从而试图激发这个焦点世纪劳动力增长在过去几个世纪形成学科基础的地方。 每年大约有7名本科生将从不同的背景中招募（包括从历史上代表性不足的群体服务的学院和大学招募），并接受技术培训，这些技术包括活动物行为，肌肉解剖，骨骼，牙齿和头骨的分析，以及最终如何从化石的形状中推断灭绝物种的行为和能力。 学生不仅将学习这些技术技能，而且通过与资深教授及其博士后研究员和研究生的国际团队合作，他们将学习跨学术团队和文化合作的“软技能”。 学生将获得这些技能，并获得专业演讲和潜在出版物的作者资格，为他们提供可能改变生活的经历，这可能成为他们继续追求STEM兴趣和职业的核心。该项目的总体目标是培训不同群体的学生了解新兴的21世纪功能形态学和比较解剖学技术。 学生将在美国PI的实验室（位于北卡罗来纳州州立大学）接受关键技术培训，然后陪同前往巴黎，在国家自然历史博物馆的一位合作者的实验室工作，在那里他们将有机会获得数百年的收藏品和该地区的其他生物研究机构。 在那里，在教授和他们的高级博士后研究员和研究生的指导下，IRES学生将开发独立或小组项目，专注于功能形态学和比较解剖学研究问题的现代方法。 这些可能包括1）在几个动物园进行的行为研究和实验（包括进入鼠狐猴的殖民地，或与像大竹狐猴这样的物种一起工作，这些物种在法国以外没有被圈养），2）用新鲜标本或来自博物馆大量液体收藏的标本进行解剖工作，以及对3）现代物种或4）也收藏在这个具有历史意义的博物馆收藏中的著名化石的骨骼或牙齿材料的分析。 这些研究可能最终允许IRES学生使用这些关于现存物种的行为和解剖学的知识来评估灭绝物种的适应性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。