NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2013

在获得飞行能力的过程中，鸟类和它们的祖先恐龙经历了脊椎动物历史上一些最引人注目的形态和功能转变。飞行是最具挑战性的运动形式，现存的成年鸟类具有独特的解剖特征，使它们能够满足空中运动的要求。早期的有翼恐龙缺乏许多这些特征，因此，长期以来人们一直认为早期恐龙无法进行动力飞行。然而，拥有类似恐龙解剖结构的幼鸟通过拍打斜坡奔跑甚至短暂飞行来躲避捕食者。这是如何实现的呢？虽然成年动物的运动已经得到了很好的研究，但对于过渡性（发育或进化）解剖动物的运动却知之甚少。许多特征在发展和进化过程中发生了变化，分析它们对运动的影响是具有挑战性的。然而，使用SIMM等程序进行生物力学建模，科学家可以通过单独操纵解剖参数来确定其影响，从而探索解剖设计变化的功能后果。本项目以鸟类和恐龙为研究对象，旨在将生物学、古生物学和工程学学科结合起来，探索运动能力和生态学中发育和进化转变的生物力学基础。主要培训目标是：学习生物工程方法来检验形式-功能关系，并获得制作博物馆展品的经验，让学生看到科学的作用。预期的成果包括一个展览，帮助学生建造一个数字恐龙，探索解剖学的变化如何影响运动，并向学术和公众观众展示。

Building a bird: developmental and evolutionary construction of the avian body planIn the process of acquiring the ability to fly, birds and their dinosaur ancestors have undertaken some of the most dramatic morphological and functional transformations in vertebrate history. Flight is the most challenging form of locomotion, and living adult birds have unique anatomical features that permit them to meet the demands of aerial locomotion. Early winged dinosaurs lacked many of these features, and consequently, it has long been assumed that early dinosaurs were incapable of powered flight. Yet baby birds with dinosaur-like anatomies elude predators by flap-running up slopes and even briefly flying. How is this accomplished? Whereas locomotion of adult animals is well studied, very little is known about locomotion of animals with transitional (developing or evolving) anatomies. Many features change during development and evolution, and parsing out their effects on locomotion is challenging. However, biomechanical modeling with programs like SIMM allows scientists to explore the functional consequences of changes in anatomical design, by manipulating anatomical parameters individually to determine their effects. Using birds and dinosaurs as a case study, this project aims to bridge biological, paleontological, and engineering disciplines to explore biomechanical underpinnings of developmental and evolutionary transformations in locomotor capacity and ecology.The primary training objectives are: learning bioengineering approaches to examine form-function relationships and gaining experience making museum exhibits that let students see science in action. Anticipated outcomes include an exhibit that helps students build a digital dinosaur to explore how changes in anatomy might affect locomotion and presentations to academic and public audiences.