Doctoral Dissertation Research: Dental Topography in Primate and Rodent Radiations

了解灵长类动物适应模式与生态机遇和竞争的关系，对于重建灵长类动物和人类的生物多样性具有重要意义。本博士论文项目将利用定量和比较框架来研究始新世和中新世灵长类化石骨骼形状和多样性的生态压力，并与啮齿动物化石分类群进行比较，从而提高对灵长类动物适应的认识。该项目涉及对本科生的培训和指导，包括来自STEM研究中代表性不足的群体，对高中生的外展活动，以及通过Morphosource公开分享扫描数据。该项目将广泛地（比较灵长类动物与啮齿类动物）和具体地（比较不同的灵长类进化支）研究灵长类动物进化支的适应性变异性和形态多样性。利用两大洲中始新世-中中新世特有灵长类动物和啮齿类动物的牙齿地形图，对差异和形态进行量化。牙齿地形将随时间重建，并使用系统发育比较方法进行分析，允许在设定的时间间隔内对不同分支和大陆之间的差异和形态进行统计比较。具体而言，该项目将1)测试类人猿灵长类动物的多样化模式是否在非洲阿拉伯和南美洲之间随着时间的推移而显著不同，并将这些模式与同一大陆上的水蛭啮齿类动物的模式进行比较；2)确定两大洲灵长类动物和啮齿类动物谱系中牙齿地形形态的变化，并评估这些变化在时间、程度和幅度上是否具有相似性和/或差异性。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Understanding how patterns of primate adaptation relate to ecological opportunity and competition is important for reconstructing primate and hominin biodiversity through time. This doctoral dissertation project will advance knowledge about primate adaptation using a quantitative and comparative framework to examine ecological pressures on skeletal shape and diversity for Eocene and Miocene fossil primates, with comparison to fossil rodent taxa. This project involves training and mentoring of undergraduate students, including from groups underrepresented in STEM research, outreach activities to high school students, and public sharing of scanned data through Morphosource.This project will examine the adaptive variability and morphological diversity of primate clades broadly (comparing primates to rodents) and specifically (comparing different primate clades). Disparity and morphotype will be quantified using dental topography of middle Eocene - middle Miocene endemic primates and rodents from both continents. Dental topography will be reconstructed through time and analyzed using phylogenetic comparative methods, allowing for the statistical comparison of disparity and morphotype between different clades and landmasses through time at set intervals. Specifically, this project will 1) test whether the diversification patterns of anthropoid primates differ significantly through time between Afro-Arabia and South America, and compare these patterns to those of hystricognath rodents on the same continents, and 2) identify shifts in dental topographic morphotype throughout the primate and rodent lineages of both continents and assess whether these shifts share similarities and/or differences in timing, degree, and magnitude.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.