Doctoral Dissertation Research: Relationships between diet and tooth wear in primate evolution

博士论文研究：灵长类动物进化中饮食与牙齿磨损的关系

• 批准号: 2235734
• 负责人: Kieran McNulty
• 金额: $ 1.82万
• 依托单位: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-07-15 至 2024-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2235734&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Relationships; between

Teeth are among the most plentiful remains in the fossil record. They provide information about diet and environment, behavior, and evolutionary relationships. This Doctoral Dissertation Research project uses new and emerging techniques to better understand the relationships among tooth shape, function, and diet as teeth change across the course of primate maturation. Because many analytical methods require teeth with little wear, many fossil teeth are excluded from study due to levels of wear. This project leverages data across all stages of tooth wear and characterizes the diets of individual primate species represented in the fossil record, providing a more comprehensive framework of ecological context, diversity, and adaptive significance to be built for the study of early ape communities. In addition, this project provides research opportunities for undergraduates from groups underrepresented in STEM. The investigator also hosts community outreach and engagement events through the local natural history museum and a nonprofit science and social studies program.This project aims to improve resolution of Early Miocene primate dietary behaviors by combining updated methods of whole-crown dental topographic analysis with cutting-edge surface shape segmentation into a new approach for characterizing and differentiating (macroscopic) tooth wear among primates with different dietary behaviors. Importantly, specimens across the spectrum of wear stages are used to inform reconstructions of dietary behaviors and variation. The research is motivated by three specific questions: 1) How do differences in tooth crown wear correlate with different diets in extant primates? 2) Does wear on individual cusps reflect different degrees of resolution for dietary differentiation in extant primates? and 3) What do patterns of wear in Early Miocene catarrhines indicate regarding their dietary breadth? To address these questions, a sample of extant and fossil specimens are characterized using variables from dental topographic analysis: ariaDNE, 3D-OPCR, and RFI. Advances in surface segmentation techniques enable these aggregate variables to be efficiently assessed not only on whole crowns, as is typical, but also on individual cusps. This novel approach and its application across stages of tooth wear can greatly improve resolution of how tooth function varies over time and across the crown surface. Moreover, the individuation of cusps can provide important insights regarding the distribution of dietary signal across the tooth crown surface, with implications for assessing dental function and evolution in hominins, other primates, and other mammals.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.

牙齿是化石记录中最丰富的遗迹之一。他们提供有关饮食和环境，行为和进化关系的信息。该博士学位论文研究项目使用新的和新兴的技术来更好地了解牙齿形状，功能和饮食的关系，因为牙齿在整个灵长类动物的成熟过程中变化。由于许多分析方法需要磨损的牙齿，因此由于磨损水平，许多化石牙齿被排除在研究之外。该项目利用牙齿磨损的各个阶段的数据，并表征了化石记录中代表的单个灵长类动物物种的饮食，从而为早期猿类社区的研究提供了更全面的生态环境，多样性和适应性意义的框架。此外，该项目为STEM中代表性不足的团体的本科生提供了研究机会。研究者还通过当地自然历史博物馆和非营利性科学和社会研究计划举办社区外展和参与活动。本项目旨在通过将全冠牙科超图形分析的更新方法与最先进的表面形状分割结合到特征性的质地（量度）（量较大的质量）（量较大的饮食），从而改善中新世灵长类动物早期饮食行为的分辨率。重要的是，跨磨损阶段的标本用于为饮食行为和变化的重建提供信息。这项研究是由三个特定问题激励的：1）牙冠磨损的差异与现有灵长类动物的不同饮食有何相关性？ 2）单个尖牙的磨损是否反映了现有灵长类动物饮食分化的不同程度分辨率？ 3）中新世早期卡他的佩戴方式表明其饮食广度是什么？为了解决这些问题，使用牙齿地形分析中的变量来表征现存和化石标本的样本：Ariadne，3D-OPCR和RFI。表面分割技术的进步使这些骨料变量不仅可以像典型的整个牙冠上有效评估，而且可以在单个尖cusp上进行评估。这种新颖的方法及其在牙齿磨损阶段的应用可以大大提高牙齿功能如何随时间和冠表面变化的分辨率。此外，尖牙的个性化可以提供有关牙齿冠表中饮食信号的分布的重要见解，这对评估人类，其他灵长类动物和其他哺乳动物的牙科功能和进化的影响。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识优点和广泛的范围来评估的。