Doctoral Dissertation Research: Evolution of the forelimbs of suspensory primates

人们经常观察到生物适应在一个物种群体中已经进化了多次。这种现象可能与一组物种内特定的共存特征的出现有关，这些特征使得某些适应性的进化比其他适应性更有可能。在使用悬吊运动的灵长类动物群体中，这种运动模式似乎已经独立进化了多次。该博士论文项目研究了灵长类动物前肢生物特征之间的共变如何影响其进化轨迹。该项目有助于人们逐渐了解特征的共变如何影响新身体计划的进化，特别是人类独特的直立行走形式的进化。除了培训研究生之外，该项目还生成一个大型数据集，可用于培训本科生和高中生的研究设计、统计和计算机编码。这位博士生计划发布该项目结果的面向公众的简短视频摘要，在活跃的科学家和公众之间建立直接联系。该项目研究生物性状共变方式的变化如何影响进化轨迹，有可能使特定的适应性套件在某些进化枝中更常见，同时抑制它们在其他群体中的进化。研究人员计划收集灵长类动物前肢骨骼的 3 维数据，使用进化统计数据来识别与频繁悬吊行为相关的特征，并使用矩阵检查这些特征如何在悬吊类群及其近亲中共变。关于灵长类动物悬吊进化的不同假设预测了悬吊群体与非悬吊群体的性状共变的不同强度和模式。人类、黑猩猩和其他猿类的共同祖先在多大程度上适应了悬挂，目前正在激烈争论。通过研究灵长类动物的悬架如何进化，这项研究将有助于我们了解早期人类进化。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并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，被认为值得支持。

Biological adaptations are often observed to have evolved multiple times within a group of species. This phenomenon may be related to the occurrence of particular co-occurring traits within a group of species that make the evolution of some adaptations more likely than others. Among primate groups that use suspensory locomotion, this pattern of movement seems to have evolved multiple times independently. This doctoral dissertation project investigates how covariation among biological traits within the forelimbs of primates affected the trajectory of their evolution. The project contributes to an emerging understanding of how covariation of traits impacts the evolution of new body plans, in particular the evolution of humans’ distinct form of upright walking. In addition to training a graduate student, this project generates a large dataset that can be used to train undergraduate and high school students in study design, statistics, and computer coding. The doctoral student plans to publish short, public-oriented video abstracts of this project’s results, creating a direct link between active scientists and the public.This project studies how changes in the way biological traits covary can affect the trajectory of evolution, potentially making specific adaptive suites more common in certain clades while inhibiting their evolution in other groups. The investigator plans to collect 3-dimensional data on the forelimb bones of primates from across the order, use evolutionarily informed statistics to identify traits that are associated with frequent suspensory behaviors, and examine how these traits covary in suspensory taxa and their close relatives using matrices. Different hypotheses about the evolution of suspension in primates predict different strengths and patterns of trait covariation in suspensory vs non-suspensory groups. The extent to which the common ancestors of humans, chimpanzees, and other apes were adapted for suspension is under active debate. By studying how suspension evolved in primates, this study will contribute to our understanding of early human evolution.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.