Experimental Studies on Primate Locomotion

研究人类的起源和进化必然包括我们的近亲，非人类的灵长类动物。了解活着的灵长类动物如何使用他们的身体(肌肉和骨骼)以不同的方式移动，为重建我们祖先的古代生活方式提供了适当的背景。如果我们想要正确地解释化石发现，我们需要了解身体形态和功能之间的关系，并知道不同的结构起作用，或者它的作用是什么。本项目涉及将某些实验方法应用于对活着的非人灵长类动物的解剖形态和功能的分析，使用骨骼应变分析、遥测肌电分析，以及通过三平面摄像和使用电子压力测量系统进行运动学和动力学分析。这些都是非常复杂的方法来监测肌肉活动和骨骼应力和应变的动物执行不同的运动组-步行，手臂摆动，关节行走，等等。获得的信息将被用来帮助解释区分现存猴子、猿和人类的特征的适应性意义，并将这种理解应用于解释人类和灵长类进化的化石证据。

The study of the origin and evolution of humans necessarily includes as subject matter our nearest relatives, the non human primates. Understanding how living primates use their bodies (muscles and bones) to move about in different ways provides the proper context for the reconstruction of ancient lifestyles of our ancestors. We need to understand the relationship between body form and function, and know different structures work, or what it is for, if we are to be able to interpret fossil finds correctly. This project concerns the application of certain experimental methods to such analyses of anatomical form and function in living non human primates, using bone strain analysis, telemetered electromyography, and the analysis of kinematics and kinetics through triplanr videotaping and the use of an electronic pressure measurement system. These are all extremely sophisticated ways of monitoring muscle activity and bone stress and strain of animals perform different sets of movements - walking, arm swinging, knuckle walking, and so on. The information obtained will be used to help interpret the adaptive significance of features distinguishing living monkeys, apes and humans, and to apply that understanding to the interpretation of the fossil evidence for human and primate evolution.