Quantitative Analysis of the Semicircular Canals of Fossil Primates: A Test of Hypotheses About Locomotion in Extinct Species

人类是灵长类动物，有很长一段适应树上生活的历史。作为联系动物与环境的纽带，运动是动物最重要的行为之一。研究人员通过研究化石四肢骨骼，对灵长类动物的运动进化做出了假设。这些想法是基于生物力学分析和比较解剖学。在这里，研究人员打算通过研究灵长类动物解剖学中与运动密切相关但独立于肢体的一部分来检验关于这种联系的假设。灵长类的半规管是内耳的一部分，根据运动的需要进行调节。它们的敏感性是可以测量的替代品，在快速移动的物种中增加，在速度较慢的物种中降低。在这项研究中，研究人员将利用超高分辨率计算机断层扫描的非破坏性方法，研究现代物种和一系列灵长类化石头骨中的管道细节。这种X射线技术不会损害博物馆珍稀的野生物种标本，也不会损害不可替代的头骨化石。科学家们将对头骨进行X射线切片，并通过计算机重建其细节。这些计算机图像随后成为这项研究的原始数据。现代物种运河的细节是从野外观察中得知的，它将被用作推断古代祖先和灭绝物种的移动的尺度。

Humans are primates - animals with a long history of adaptation to life in trees. As the link between animals and their environment, locomotion is one of the most important animal behaviors. Researchers have made hypotheses about the evolution of locomotion in primates by studying fossil limb bones. These ideas have been based on biomechanical analyses and comparative anatomy. Here, the researchers intend to test hypotheses regarding this association by studying a part of primate anatomy that is intimately linked to locomotion but independent from the limbs. Primate semicircular canals, which are part of the inner ear, are tuned to the demands of locomotion. Their sensitivity, surrogates for which can be measured, is increased in fast moving species and decreased in slower ones. In this research the investigators will study the details of the canals in skulls of modern species and a series of fossil primates by using the non-destructive method of ultra-high-resolution computed tomography. This X-ray technique does not harm rare museum specimens of species that are now endangered in the wild nor irreplaceable fossil skulls. The scientists shall make X-ray slices of skulls and reconstruct their details by computer. These computer images then become the raw data for the study. The details of the canals of modern species, in which the locomotion is known from field observations, will be used as a yardstick by which to infer the locomotion of the ancient ancestral and extinct species.