Revisiting Homo Taxonomy: A Geometric Morphometric Analysis of the Hominin Skeleton

这一行动资助了NSF 2020财年生物学博士后研究奖学金，使用生物收藏进行研究。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。人类属于极其多样化且在地理上分布广泛的人属。人类及其祖先(原始人)的骨骼中存在着广泛的多样性，这使得对它们进行科学分类变得困难--原始人是属于一个极其多样化的物种，还是属于几个不同的物种？在历史上，骨骼化石的形状和特征被用来帮助识别它属于什么物种，尽管这些分类忽略了一个事实，即广泛的多样性应该促使我们重新思考如何定义一个物种。这个项目调查了人类祖先的变异范围在多大程度上模仿了另一组地理上分布广泛的灵长类动物--猕猴。这项研究通过允许更准确的分类方法来推动科学知识的发展，这些方法将使我们更好地了解我们自己和我们的祖先，以及我们是如何相关的。项目期间生成的3D模型将作为K-12教师的教育资源发布在网上，并附有相应的教案，向学生传授我们祖先的身体与我们的身体有何不同。这项研究探索了骨骼上的形态变化如何影响人属的分类评估。几个骨骼标本，包括现代人、尼安德特人、来自印度尼西亚的小体物种(H.flressis)、新发现的南非化石(H.naledi)以及其他将使用最先进的技术进行3D扫描，以使用几何形态统计分析等新方法进行分析。此外，这些数据将与这位研究员之前关于猕猴的数据集进行比较，以便比较地理上分布广泛的灵长类物种存在多少可行的变异。这个项目测试了两个假设：(1)在人属中看到的形态变异模仿了在可比灵长类物种中观察到的内部变化；(2)后颅骨，特别是肢体环带和相关骨骼，反映了可用于分类学评估的亚属分类。这项研究推进了一位女科学家的职业生涯，并将招募来自STEM代表性较低地区的本科生来帮助该项目。结果将通过遵循NC教育标准的课程计划传播给来自历史上代表性不足的群体的K-12学生。公众宣传也将通过博客文章、研讨会和研讨会陈述来实现。这一奖项反映了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 2020, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports research and training of the Fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. Humans belong to the incredibly diverse and geographically widespread genus Homo. The wide range of diversity seen in the skeletons of humans and their ancestors (hominins) makes it difficult to scientifically classify them – do hominins belong to one incredibly diverse species or to several different species? Historically, the shape and features of a skeletal fossil are used to help identify what species it belongs to, though these classifications ignore the fact that the wide range of diversity should cause us to rethink how we define a species. This project investigates the extent to which the range of variation seen in human ancestors mimics that of another group of geographically widespread primates, macaque monkeys. This research advances scientific knowledge by allowing for more accurate classification methods that will allow us to better understand ourselves and our ancestors, and how we are related. The 3D models generated during the project will be published online as educational resources for K-12 teachers, along with corresponding lesson plans to teach students about how our ancestor’s bodies are different from ours. This research explores how morphological variation throughout the skeleton informs the taxonomic assessment of genus Homo. Several skeletal specimens, including modern humans, Neandertals, the small-bodied species from Indonesia (H. floresiensis), the newly discovered South African fossils (H. naledi), and others will be 3D scanned using state-of-the-art technology for analysis with novel methods such as geometric morphometric statistical analyses. Further, this data will be compared to the Fellow’s previous dataset of macaque monkeys in order to compare how much variation feasibly exists in a geographically widespread primate species. This project tests two hypothesis: (H1) the morphological variation seen in genus Homo mimics what is observed intra-generically in comparable primate species and (H2) postcranial bones, particularly the limb girdles and associated bones, reflect sub-generic taxonomy which can be used for taxonomic assessment. This research advances the career of a woman scientist and undergraduate students from underrepresented areas in STEM will be recruited to help with the project. Results will be disseminated to K-12 students from historically underrepresented groups via lesson plans following NC education standards. Public outreach also will be achieved through blog posts, workshops, and seminar presentations.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.