Doctoral Dissertation Research: Paleontological and population genetics approaches for reconstructing hominin evolutionary history

该奖项全部或部分根据2021年美国救援计划法案（公法117-2）资助。这个博士论文项目重建直立人，一个关键的人类祖先，使用牙齿和骨骼数据的古代人口之间的进化关系。该项目整合了古生物学和群体遗传学方法，用于重建进化历史，从而推进了关于人类（包括我们的物种智人）如何进化的知识。该项目通过使用生物考古学领域通常使用的方法促进跨学科，通过支持一名女性古人类学家的奖学金增加古人类学领域的多样性，并促进国际研究合作。研究人员通过关于人类进化的博客和与初中和高中学生的科学活动进行公共和K-12科学宣传。直立人，在人类化石记录中代表，在时间和空间上都是多样的。目前对H.直立人之间的联系是有限的。骨骼和牙齿解剖学为评估化石记录中种群之间的进化关系提供了主要基础，但解剖学特征的遗传基础并不总是很好地理解。本研究考察了H.直立人的时间和地理模式之间的关系，过去的H。使用生物距离方法和比较数据的直立人种群。将使用Mantel测试分别比较牙齿和颅神经形状距离矩阵与描述人群之间时间、地理或遗传距离的矩阵。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。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). This doctoral dissertation project reconstructs evolutionary relationships among ancient populations of Homo erectus, a pivotal human ancestor, using dental and skeletal data. The project integrates paleontological and population genetics approaches for reconstructing evolutionary history, thereby advancing knowledge about how hominins, including our species, Homo sapiens, evolved. The project promotes interdisciplinarity by using approaches typically used in the field of bioarchaeology, increases diversity in the field of paleoanthropology by supporting the scholarship of a female paleoanthropologist, and fosters international research collaborations. The investigator conducts public and K-12 science outreach through a weblog about human evolution and through science activities with middle and high school students.Homo erectus, represented in the hominin fossil record, is morphologically diverse through both time and space. The current understanding of how populations of H. erectus were related to each other is limited. Bony and dental anatomy provide the primary basis for assessing evolutionary relationships between populations in the fossil record, but the genetic basis of anatomical traits is not always well understood. This research examines H. erectus temporal and geographic patterns in the relationships among past H. erectus populations using biodistance methods and comparative data. Matrices of dental and neurocranial shape distances will be compared separately using Mantel tests to a matrix describing the temporal, geographic, or genetic distances between populations.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.