Primate dental topographic and geometric morphology

了解牙齿的形态对于古生物学家分析哺乳动物的进化是至关重要的，无论是对物种的识别，还是对不同物种和群体之间的关系的评估。此外，由于牙齿的主要功能是处理食物，所以牙列提供了关于灵长类化石饮食的信息。该项目的目标是更好地了解饮食专业化、系统发育历史和身体大小对灵长类牙齿形态的相对贡献，并检验关于利用牙齿形态重建饮食和系统发育历史的最佳做法的假设。这项研究将通过汇编、测量和分析现存灵长类所有主要类群的牙齿形态和灵长类进化关键时期的化石物种的三维(3D)数字图像的大样本来完成。这项研究通过创建数字图像数据库来帮助建立科学基础设施，该数据库将提供给其他研究人员和学生用于教学和研究目的。当提供标本的博物馆提出要求时，高质量的牙模和数字图像也将被存档到这些机构。该项目还将为本科生提供从计算机断层扫描创建解剖图像的培训，这是一种在医疗实践中广泛使用的技术，类似的数字图像也用于建筑、艺术和工程领域。这项工作将在布鲁克林学院进行，并将通过提供研究助理的就业机会和相关练习来促进本科生参与科学研究，相关练习将成为主要研究人员授课的课程的一部分。

Understanding the morphology of the teeth is vital for paleontologists analyzing mammalian evolution, both for the identification of species and for assessing relationships between different species and groups. Additionally, as teeth function primarily to process food, the dentition provides information on diet in fossil primates. The goals of the project are to gain a better understanding of the relative contribution of dietary specialization, phylogenetic history and body size to primate dental morphology, and to test hypotheses concerning best practice in the use of dental morphology to reconstruct diet and phylogenetic history. This will be accomplished through the compilation, measurement, and analysis of a large sample of three dimensional (3D) digital images of dental morphology from all major groupings of extant primates, and fossil species from key periods in primate evolution.This research contributes to building scientific infrastructure through the creation of a database of digital images, which will be made available to other researchers and students for teaching and research purposes. When requested by museums providing access to specimens, high quality dental casts and digital images will also be archived with these institutions. The project also will provide training for undergraduate students in the creation of anatomical images from computed tomography, a technique that is employed extensively in medical practice, and similar digital images also are used in the fields of architecture, art, and engineering. This work will be carried out at Brooklyn College, and will promote undergraduate participation in scientific research through providing opportunities for employment as research assistants, and through associated exercises that will form part of the coursework in classes taught by the principal investigators.