Collaborative Research: Feeding ontogeny at the interface of behavior and morphology

本研究将整合对两种灵长类动物的食物物理特性、个体打开和进食食物时的行为以及不同年龄的颚肌力学的研究，揭示解剖和行为如何在重要的发育里程碑期间相互作用，影响摄食性能。这项研究的结果将提高我们对发育过程中特定摄食行为策略的选择如何影响成年摄食行为和相关肌肉骨骼解剖的理解。此外，这些发现可能为理解和重建灵长类动物和古人类化石的行为提供模型。该项目将促进国际研究合作，为一名女性博士后科学家和多名本科生和研究生提供STEM培训机会，并支持四名早期职业女性科学家。研究结果将用于为K-12学生开发灵长类动物行为和解剖学练习，并为K-12教师提供有效传授这些练习的培训。此外，这项研究的结果将与野外地点的保护和社区外展工作有关。本研究将整合不同的数据集来检验灵长类动物摄食系统的形式-功能假设。该研究的中心目标是研究未成熟灵长类动物在个体发育过程中如何应对摄食性能限制，如最大颌口和咬合力。为了实现这一目标，本研究将比较两种相关灵长类动物的喂养系统的发展，一种是利用坚硬，坚韧和相对较大的食物，另一种是吃较小的，机械挑战性较小的食物。具体而言，该项目将：1)整合实验和生态数据，研究近亲灵长类动物食物特性、摄食行为、摄食系统功能和形态的发育变化；2)建立未成熟灵长类动物的饮食与形态之间的功能关系，以研究发育过程中特定摄食行为的选择如何影响成年动物的形态，并在整个个体发育过程中维持摄食表现；3)将摄食系统骨骼形态数据与摄食系统性能的关键决定因素数据（包括食物特性、咬合力和缝隙）相结合。这些结果有助于我们对现存灵长类生态形态的理解，也为化石分类群中饮食驱动形态的出现和分化提供了一个完整的模型。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research will integrate research on the physical properties of food, the behaviors individuals use while opening and eating foods, and jaw muscle mechanics across a range of ages in two primate species, shedding light on how anatomy and behavior interact to influence feeding performance during important developmental milestones. Results of this research will improve our understanding of how selection for particular feeding behavior strategies during development shapes adult feeding behavior and related musculoskeletal anatomy. Additionally, the findings may inform models for understanding and reconstructing behavior from fossil primates and hominins. The project will foster international research collaborations, provide STEM training opportunities for a female postdoctoral scientist and multiple undergraduate and graduate students, and support four early-career female scientists. Results will be used to develop primate behavior and anatomy exercises for K-12 students and provide training for K-12 teachers to effectively deliver those exercises. Furthermore, findings from this research will be relevant to conservation and community outreach efforts at the field sites. This study will integrate diverse datasets to test primate feeding system form-function hypotheses. The central goal of the proposed research is to examine how immature primates cope with feeding performance constraints, such as maximum jaw gape and bite force, during ontogeny. To address this goal, this study will compare feeding system development in two related primate species, one that exploits hard, tough and relatively large foods, and one that eats smaller, less mechanically-challenging foods. Specifically this project will: 1) integrate experimental and ecological data addressing developmental shifts in food properties, feeding behavior, and feeding system function and morphology in closely related primate species; 2) establish functional relationships between diet and morphology in immature primates to examine how selection for particular feeding behaviors during development relates to adult morphologies and maintains feeding performance throughout ontogeny; and 3) integrate data on feeding system skeletal morphology with data on critical determinants of feeding system performance, including food properties, bite force, and gape. These results contribute to our understanding of extant primate ecomorphology and also provide an integrated model for the appearance and differentiation of diet-driven morphology in fossil taxa.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.