Dissertation Research: Skeletal Anatomy and Locomotor Adaptations of the Early Tertiary Plesiadapiformes

研究生K.Christopher Beard提议研究Plesiadiformes，这是在美国西部等地发现的一组重要的哺乳动物化石。这些灭绝的物种被许多人认为是早期的灵长类动物，尽管它们与这一类和其他哺乳动物类群的进化关系是一个有争议的话题。为了扩大我们对这一群体的了解，比尔德先生将集中精力对颅后化石进行分析。这些关于肢体比例和生物力学的数据也将揭示关于早期灵长类动物生活习惯的争议，特别是它们是树栖动物还是地面栖息动物。这些新数据将与文献中的信息结合起来，对进化关系进行分析。早期灵长类动物的进化还远未得到很好的理解，拟议中的研究将为我们理解所基于的信息增加一个新的维度。对灵长类和其他早期哺乳动物关系的新分析将对脊椎动物动物学家和整个进化生物学家产生广泛影响。

Graduate student K. Christopher Beard proposes to study the Plesiadapiformes, an important group of fossil mammals found, among other places, in the American West. These extinct species are considered by many to be early primates, though their evolutionary relationships to this and other mammal groups is a controversial subject. In order to expand our understanding of this group, Mr. Beard will concentrate his efforts on an analysis of post-cranial fossils. These data on limb proportions and biomechanics will also shed light on controversies regarding the life habits of early primates, specifically, whether they were arboreal or ground-dwelling. These new data will be combined with information from the literature into an analysis of evolutionary relationships. Early primate evolution is far from well understood, and the proposed research would add a new dimension to the information on which our understanding is based. New analyses of primate and other early mammmal relations will have wide impact on vertebrate zoologists and on evolutionary biologists in general.