Collaborative Research: Integrative analysis of hominid feeding biomechanics

几十年来，理解塑造现代人的出现和发展的力量一直是生物人类学的主要目标。随着科技的进步，我们研究影响人体解剖形状的关键问题的能力也有了显著提高。在这里，一个由人类学家和工程师组成的跨学科团队将使用工程和实验方法来研究头骨的形状是如何进化的，以适应与进食不同类型食物相关的力量。具体来说，研究人员将采用高度跨学科的方法来研究这些早期人类的头骨是否设计得很好，可以打开并咀嚼这种坚硬易碎的物体。饮食适应被认为是影响早期人类进化过程的关键因素，因此这项研究项目将为早期人类祖先的功能解剖、饮食、生态和行为提供有价值的见解。在知识价值方面，本项目将：(a)检查饮食和头骨形态之间的功能和进化关系，(b)检验解释最早人类进化的主要假设，(c)收集和整合多种类型的原始数据，这些数据对理解喂养生物力学至关重要，(d)开发快速构建工程模型的方法，这些模型可以应用于广泛学科的研究问题，(e)整合生态，比较，实验，以及用于研究进化问题的工程技术，以及(f)向科学界迅速传播数据、模型和发现。就更广泛的影响而言，这项研究将：(a)促进科学的跨学科、多样性和国际主义，(b)收集与牙科和颅面医学相关的头骨生物力学数据，(c)支持三名初级研究人员在其学术任命的第一年进行研究，(d)支持几所大学的女研究生，(e)为学生中少数民族比例很高的大学的本科生提供支持。(f)为发展中国家（巴西、苏里南）的国际学生提供培训，这将最终支持这些国家的科学基础设施和机构的发展；(g)为格鲁吉亚儿童博物馆的人类生物学和进化展览提供内容；s博物馆，(h)使用工程模型，限制对需要使用活体动物的未来实验研究的需求，或至少提高分析能力；(i)通过记录某些灵长类动物的生态和适应之间的关系，产生与保护工作相关的数据；(j)加强10所大学和两个国家的人类学家和工程师之间的合作；(k)提高工程界对他们的方法如何适用于进化问题的认识。

Understanding the forces that shaped the appearance and development of modern humans has been a leading goal of biological anthropology for decades. As technology has improved, our capability to investigate key questions about the factors affecting the shape of our anatomy have advanced significantly. Here, an interdisciplinary team of anthropologists and engineers will use engineering and experimental methods to examine how the shape of the skull has evolved in order to adapt to the forces associated with feeding on different types of food items. Specifically, the researchers will take a highly interdisciplinary approach to examining whether the skulls of these early humans were well designed to crack open and chew such hard, brittle objects. Dietary adaptations are thought to have been critical factors influencing the course of early human evolution, so this research project will provide valuable insights into the functional anatomy, diet, ecology and behavior of the earliest human ancestors.With respect to intellectual merit, this project will: (a) examine the functional and evolutionary relationships between diet and skull form, (b) test a leading hypothesis explaining the evolution of the earliest humans, (c) collect and integrate multiple types of raw data critical to an understanding of feeding biomechanics, (d) develop methods for the rapid construction of engineering models that can be applied to research questions in a wide range of disciplines, (e) integrate ecological, comparative, experimental, and engineering techniques for the investigation of evolutionary questions, and (f) rapidly disseminate data, models and findings to the scientific community.With respect to broader impacts, this study will: (a) promote interdisciplinarity, diversity and internationalism in science, (b) collect data about skull biomechanics that are relevant to dentistry and craniofacial medicine, (c) support the research of three junior investigators each in the first year of their academic appointments, (d) support female graduate students at several universities, (e) provide support to undergraduates at a university whose student body has a high proportion of minorities, (f) provide training for international students in developing nations (Brazil, Suriname), which will ultimately support the development of scientific infrastructure and institutions in those countries, (g) provide content to an exhibit focusing on human biology and evolution at the Georgia Children?s Museum, (h) using engineering models, limit the need for, or at least increase the analytical power of, future experimental studies requiring the use of live animals, (i) generate data relevant to conservation efforts by documenting the relationship between ecology and adaptation in certain primates, (j) strengthen collaborations between anthropologists and engineers in ten universities and two countries, (k) heighten awareness in the engineering community about how their methods are applicable to evolutionary questions.