Doctoral Dissertation Research: Cognitive ecology of a nocturnal primate and its implications for primate cognitive evolution

灵长类动物，如猿和猴子，以其不同寻常的大脑大小和认知复杂性而闻名。然而，这些特殊的特征是否在灵长类多样性的整个范围内进化还不确定。为了更好地了解灵长类复杂智力的进化，需要比较数据。为此，这篇博士论文研究项目考察了一个未被充分研究的古代灵长类动物谱系的生态学、社会性和认知行为。这些结果可以为灵长类动物认知复杂性的进化提供关键的见解。该项目支持学生研究人员的指导和国际研究合作。它还涉及一种跨学科合作，融合了生物人类学和机电工程的想法，以开发新的远程生物记录技术。这一合作有助于未来收集许多体型较小的夜间活动物种的空间和运动数据，这类数据传统上是无法获得的。该项目的目标是在夜间活动的链状灵长类灵长类动物的野生种群中确定与生态和社会相关的认知适应，以确定与白天群居的灵长类动物相比，社会生态压力如何影响夜间链状灵长类灵长类动物的认知进化模式。研究人员利用人工行为观察、新开发的生物记录技术、发声回放实验、现场适应认知测试和比较统计分析，收集和分析了厚尾Galagos的相关认知和行为数据。如果在Galago谱系中观察到类似的认知能力，就像在群居的、昼夜活动的灵长类谱系中观察到的那样，那么可能有一个保存下来的特定社会生态条件的进化蓝图，选择在Galago分化之前的灵长类动物中专门的认知适应集。比较厚尾Galago和其他表现出相似社会生态特征的灵长类动物的认知适应能力，有助于确定特定的社会生态压力如何影响灵长类动物的认知进化，并有助于了解人类认知能力的最终进化起源。该奖项反映了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。

Primates such as apes and monkeys are known for their unusual brain size and cognitive complexity. However, there is uncertainty about whether these exceptional traits have evolved across the entire spectrum of primate diversity. To better understand the evolution of complex intelligence in primates requires comparative data. Towards that end, this doctoral dissertation research project examines the ecology, sociality, and cognitive behavior of an understudied ancient primate lineage. Results can provide key insights into how cognitive complexity has evolved in primates. The project supports mentorship of student researchers and international research collaborations. It also involves an interdisciplinary collaboration that integrates ideas from biological anthropology and electromechanical engineering to develop novel remote biologging technologies. This collaboration can facilitate the future collection of spatial and movement data on many smaller-bodied nocturnal species for which this type of data has been traditionally unattainable.The goal of this project is to identify ecologically and socially relevant cognitive adaptations in a wild population of nocturnal strepsirrhine primates, thick-tailed galagos, to determine how socioecological pressures shape patterns of cognitive evolution in nocturnal strepsirrhine primates compared to diurnal gregarious primates. The researchers utilize manual behavioral observation, newly developed biologging technology, vocalization playback experiments, field-adapted cognitive tests, and comparative statistical analysis to collect and analyze relevant cognitive and behavioral data on thick-tailed galagos. If similar cognitive abilities are observed in the galago lineage as in gregarious, diurnal primate lineages, then there may be a preserved evolutionary blueprint of specific socioecological conditions selecting for specialized sets of cognitive adaptations in primates that predates the divergence of the galagos. Comparing cognitive adaptations between thick-tailed galagos and other primates presenting similar socioecological traits can help determine how specific socioecological pressures affect primate cognitive evolution across taxa and help contextualize the ultimate evolutionary origins of human cognitive abilities.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.