NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2019: Assessing linkages among roosting ecology, biomechanics, morphological change, and adaptive radiation in bats

这一行动为NSF 2019财年生物学博士后研究奖学金-使用生物收藏进行研究-提供资金。该奖学金支持将以创新方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。这位研究员的研究探索了动物的解剖(形态)、运动(功能)和环境(生态)如何在进化过程中一起变化。尽管其中的每一部分都很重要，但了解它们是如何相互联系变化的，有助于揭示是什么引发了新物种的快速出现，这一时期被称为适应性辐射。这位研究员的研究以蝙蝠为模型系统，探索这些变化是如何联系在一起的。蝙蝠占所有现存哺乳动物的20%，它们生活在除南极洲以外的所有大洲。蝙蝠之所以能够在如此多种多样的地方定居，部分原因是它们进化出了不同的栖息习惯。这位研究员假设，蝙蝠养成新的栖息习惯(生态学)的能力与翅膀骨架(形式)和着陆动作(功能)的变化有关，这些因素共同推动了今天观察到的许多蝙蝠物种的进化。这项工作将形式、功能和生态融为一体，并为未来的工作奠定了基础，揭示了动物生物学的许多方面是如何共同作用的，从而推动了“生命之树”的多样化。除了这项科学研究，这位研究员还将把博物馆展品和研究转化为科学学习补充品，供正在努力获得高中同等学位的被监禁学生使用，并将作为美国自然历史博物馆(AMNH)本科生研究经验的导师。该研究员的研究涉及三个目标：评估栖息生态学、翅膀形态和着陆力学之间的联系。首先，这位研究员将使用微型计算机断层扫描(Micro-CT)来比较不同物种的翅膀惯性模式，这种惯性会产生力量，在着陆过程中重新定位蝙蝠的身体。第二个目的是评估与着陆冲击力施加的载荷制度相关的后肢骨骼几何形状的种间差异。最后，这些数据将与着陆动作一起使用系统发育比较方法进行检查，以确定生态机会(栖息习惯)、着陆生物力学、形态和多样化比率之间是否存在基于支系的联系。通过这项研究，这位研究员将通过使用AMNH的博物馆藏品接受比较形态学和系统发育方法方面的培训。该研究员将致力于通过为被监禁的学生开发STEM学习补充材料，指导本科生研究人员，并通过公开提供研究产品来扩大对科学的参与。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。

This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2019, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. The fellow's research explores how animal anatomy (form), movement (function), and environment (ecology) change together over the course of evolution. Although each of these pieces is important individually, learning how they change in connection with one another sheds light on what sparks the rapid appearance of new species, periods called adaptive radiations. The fellow's research uses bats as a model system to explore how these changes are connected. Bats comprise 20% of all living mammals and live on every continent except Antarctica. Part of what allows bats to colonize such varied places is that they evolved diverse roosting habits. The fellow hypothesizes that bats' ability to develop new roosting habits (ecology) is linked to changes in the wing skeleton (form) and landing maneuvers (function), and that these factors worked together to drive the evolution of the many bat species observed today. This work integrates form, function, and ecology, and sets the stage for future work that reveals how the many facets of animal biology work together to drive diversification across the 'tree of life'. Alongside this scientific research, the fellow will adapt museum exhibits and research into science learning supplements for incarcerated students who are working toward their high school equivalency degree, and will serve as a mentor for undergraduate research experiences at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH).The fellow's research addresses three aims to assess links among roosting ecology, wing morphology, and landing mechanics. First, the fellow will use micro computed tomography (micro-CT) scans to compare patterns of wing inertia, which generates the forces that reorient bats' bodies during landing, across species. The second aim assesses interspecific differences in hindlimb skeletal geometry associated with the loading regimes imposed by landing impact forces. Finally, these data will be examined alongside landing maneuvers using phylogenetic comparative methods to determine whether there are clade-based links among ecological opportunity (roosting habits), landing biomechanics, morphology, and diversification rates. Through this research, the fellow will receive training in comparative morphology and phylogenetic methods through the use of museum collections at the AMNH. The fellow will work to broaden participation in science by developing STEM learning supplements for incarcerated students, mentoring undergraduate researchers, and by making research products publicly availableThis 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.