Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Evolution of Locomotor Specializations in the Context of Adaptive Plasticity

可塑性是指生物体的行为，解剖学或生理学响应环境条件的改变，并可能导致新特征和行为的进化。许多关于古人类两足行走（用两条腿行走）起源的假设都涉及到可塑性阶段，两足行走是人类谱系最早的定义特征之一。这个博士论文项目探讨了可塑性在灵长类动物运动专门化中的作用，通过将人类置于更广泛的灵长类动物背景下来推进对人类两足行走的认识。这项研究强调了两足动物进化的潜在早期阶段，这项研究的发现可以为未来对人类化石记录的解释提供信息。这项研究支持STEM培训和指导代表性不足的高中和本科生。该项目有两个主要目标。第一个目的是调查的可塑性和肢体骨的进化之间的关系，在参考15种灵长类动物的运动剧目。研究人员收集并分析了来自人类，猿和猴子的四肢骨骼的3D地标数据，这些骨骼具有不同的专业化程度。对于第二个目标，机器人模拟方法是用来模拟可塑性的运动剧目可以导致新的行为的起源，以及影响健身和灭绝的风险。基于六种现代灵长类物种和四种人类化石物种的机器人模型在一系列模拟环境中运行。这些模拟的算法连接了两种不同形式的机器人建模-进化和发育-这可以应用于灵长类动物的适应性可塑性的其他实例，并提供给其他研究人员使用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为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来支持。

Plasticity refers to alterations to an organism’s behavior, anatomy, or physiology in response to environmental conditions and can lead to the evolution of novel features and behaviors. Many hypotheses regarding the origin of hominin bipedalism (walking on two legs), one of the earliest defining features of the human lineage, involve a phase of plasticity. This doctoral dissertation project examines the role of plasticity in primate locomotor specializations to advance knowledge about human bipedalism by placing humans within a broader primate context. This research highlights the potential early stages of the evolution of bipedalism, and findings from this research can inform future interpretations of the human fossil record. This research supports STEM training and mentorship of underrepresented high school and undergraduate students. The project has two main objectives. The first objective is to investigate the relationship between plasticity and evolvability of limb bones in reference to the locomotor repertoire of 15 primate species. The investigators collect and analyze 3D landmark data from limb bones across humans, apes, and monkeys with varying degrees of specialization. For the second objective, a robotic simulation approach is used to model how plasticity of locomotor repertoire can result in the origin of novel behaviors, as well as impact fitness and extinction risk. Robotic models based on six modern primate species and four hominin fossil species are run through a series of simulated environments. The algorithm for these simulations links two different forms of robotic modeling – evolutionary and developmental – which can be applied to other instances of adaptive plasticity in primates and made available for other researchers to use.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.