Doctoral Research Improvement Grant: Systematics of Middle to Late Miocene Hominoidea

博士研究改进资助：中新世中晚期人科系统学

• 批准号: 0824496
• 负责人: Terry Harrison
• 金额: $ 1.49万
• 依托单位: New York University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-08-15 至 2009-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0824496&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Research; Improvement; Grant; Systematics

One of the most long-standing problems in primate evolution is the nature of the relationships of Middle to Late Miocene (13-8 million years old) apes to each other, to living great apes, and to humans. Scientists have formulated many different hypotheses about hominoid (ape) relationships, but the application of different methods and the use of different skeletal features have raised the question of whether the observed results are an accurate representation of relationships or whether they are simply an artifact of the methods used and traits chosen. Current hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships of early representatives of the human lineage rely largely on comparative analyses of the highly specialized features in living African apes and modern humans. This project will offer an important new perspective on hominoid relationships by incorporating the greater range of diversity and less specialized morphologies seen in Miocene apes in order to clarify the sequence in which features evolved. This research involves a comprehensive analysis of 123 cranial and postcranial features, from 17 living primates, which have been previously used to infer evolutionary relationships among Miocene apes. These traits will be compared individually, by anatomical system and holistically, to independent (i.e., molecular) measures of evolutionary relationships. Skeletal features will first be quantified by linear measurements, and then analyzed individually in permutation tests to assess the statistical significance of the information they contain about evolutionary relationships. Parsimony analyses will then be performed on these living species, as well as four later Miocene apes, using those features that are found to have the highest information content in resolving relationships. The results should indicate how much the choice of different methods and traits is influencing our perception of Miocene hominoid evolution, and thus provide a firmer foundation for clarifying the evolutionary relationships of both Miocene apes and early fossil humans.This project will provide new insights into the utility of different methods and skeletal traits for inferring evolutionary relationships, and a rigorous test of current hypotheses about evolutionary relationships in Middle to Late Miocene apes. The study of Miocene apes is critical because they represent close relatives of humans, and some later Miocene species are likely to prove to be early members of the lineage leading to modern humans. As a consequence, a better understanding of the sequence in which traits evolved in Miocene apes and clarification of their relationships to living apes will have major implications for understanding human evolution.

灵长类动物进化中最长期存在的问题之一是中新世中期到后期（13-800万年）猿的关系的性质，彼此与人类生活在一起。科学家已经提出了许多关于人类关系（APE）关系的不同假设，但是不同方法的应用以及使用不同的骨骼特征的使用提出了一个问题，即观察到的结果是否是对关系的准确表示，还是仅仅是使用和选择的方法的文物。当前关于人类血统早期代表的进化关系的假设在很大程度上取决于对非洲猿和现代人类高度专业特征的比较分析。该项目将通过结合中新世猿中看到的更大的多样性和较少专业的形态来提供有关人类关系关系的重要新观点，以阐明特征进化的顺序。这项研究涉及对17个活着灵长类动物的123个颅骨和颅后特征的全面分析，这些灵长类动物以前已用于推断中新世猿之间的进化关系。这些特征将通过解剖学系统和整体上的独立（即分子）衡量进化关系进行分别比较。骨骼特征将首先通过线性测量来量化，然后在排列测试中单独分析，以评估其所包含的有关进化关系信息的统计意义。然后将对这些生物物种以及后来的中新世猿进行简约分析，使用这些特征在解决关系中具有最高的信息内容。 The results should indicate how much the choice of different methods and traits is influencing our perception of Miocene hominoid evolution, and thus provide a firmer foundation for clarifying the evolutionary relationships of both Miocene apes and early fossil humans.This project will provide new insights into the utility of different methods and skeletal traits for inferring evolutionary relationships, and a rigorous test of current hypotheses about evolutionary relationships in Middle到中新世晚期猿。中新世猿的研究至关重要，因为它们代表了人类的近亲，而后来的中新世物种可能被证明是导致现代人类的谱系的早期成员。结果，更好地理解了中新世猿类在中新世猿类中发展的序列，并澄清其与活猿的关系将对理解人类进化具有重大影响。