Doctoral Dissertation Research: Ecology, biology, and coexistence among multiple species of human ancestors

非洲东部地区人类化石记录的差异太大，无法归因于一个人类物种。有人认为，多达五个古人类物种--鲍氏傍人、能人、鲁道夫人、直立人和直立人--在空间、时间和消耗的饮食资源上重叠。该项目确定了在更新世（公元前200年）期间东非P. boisei和早期人属之间竞争的程度和类型。2.5 mya）。了解早期人属在我们属历史的这个关键早期阶段如何应对与其他物种的竞争，使我们能够更好地欣赏我们自己的解剖学，行为和可塑性。这项研究对生态学和生物学研究也有更广泛的影响。性状置换是近缘物种共存的因素之一，影响生态群落的结构，有助于推动物种形成和生物多样性的分布。该项目还与美国和国际上的教育专家一起制定课程计划，并支持培训一名女学者。研究人员使用3D几何形态测量（GM）形状变化分析来测试种间竞争是否影响了我们属人的进化，以及这种竞争是否有任何显着的形态影响。传统观点认为，早期人属通过竞争性排斥导致了鲍氏原住民的灭绝。然而，该项目应用了更新的3D GM形状变化分析方法来测试生态位占用，这是一种在古人类学中通常没有考虑的竞争假设。研究人员使用来自P. boisei和早期人属的超过一百万年的臼齿形态证据来调查任何种间竞争的性质和潜在原因。这项研究的结果可能会提供这些属之间的竞争，通过时间和改变以前的叙述人属例外，通过显示如何非祖先的人类可能会影响我们自己的祖先lineage.This奖项的轨迹反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得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的支持。

Variation in the human fossil record from sites in eastern Africa is too great to be attributed to one hominin species. It has been suggested that up to five hominin species – Paranthropus boisei, Homo habilis, Homo rudolfensis, Homo ergaster, and Homo erectus ¬– overlapped in space, time and in the dietary resources consumed. This project identifies the extent and type of competition between eastern African P. boisei and early Homo during the Pleistocene (after c. 2.5 mya). Understanding how early Homo responded to competition with other species at this critical early stage in the history of our genus allows us to better appreciate our own anatomy, behavior and plasticity. This study also has broader implications for ecological and biological research. Character displacement, which is one of the factors that enables the coexistence of closely related species, influences the structure of ecological communities, and helps drive speciation and the distribution of biodiversity. The project also creates lesson plans with education experts in the United States and internationally and supports the training of a woman scholar.The researchers use 3D geometric morphometric (GM) shape-change analysis to test whether interspecific competition influenced the evolution of our genus Homo through time, and whether there were any significant morphological effects of this competition. Conventional wisdom suggested that early Homo led to the extinction of P. boisei over time through competitive exclusion. However, this project applies an updated 3D GM shape-change analysis methodology to test for ecological niche incumbency, a type of competition hypothesis that has not typically been considered in paleoanthropology. The investigators use molar morphological evidence from over a million years in P. boisei and early Homo to investigate the nature and potential causes of any interspecific competition. The results of this study may provide evidence of competition between these genera through time and transform previous narratives of Homo exceptionalism by showing how a non-ancestral hominin may have influenced the trajectory of our own ancestral lineage.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.