Doctoral Dissertation Improvement: Human Growth Evolving: Integrating Skeletal, Dental, and Cranial Proxies of Growth to Understand Ontogeny in Pleistocene Genus Homo

博士论文改进：人类生长进化：整合骨骼、牙齿和颅骨生长代理以了解更新世人属的个体发育

• 批准号: 0925861
• 负责人: Susan Anton
• 金额: $ 0.99万
• 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: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-09-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0925861&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Human; Growth

Modern humans are characterized by a very slow pattern of growth and development (i.e. ontogeny) compared to the closest living relatives, the chimpanzees. In hard tissues this trend is evident in late eruption of teeth and late attainment of skeletal maturity. This delayed maturation is necessary for the development of large brains, and mastering bipedal locomotion and language, but it is still uncertain when this pattern arose during the evolution of the human lineage. Most studies of modern human and fossil ontogeny have focused on either dental or skeletal development, using the other developmental system as an age proxy. However, for a proper understanding of the origins of the modern human ontogenetic pattern, and its implications for human evolution, it is critical to understand not only the relationship between dental and skeletal growth, but also the timing of developmental events.This study will address this issue by combining data on dental and skeletal growth and development in modern human skeletal samples from different geographic regions. It will include data on dental formation and eruption, several cranial maturity indicators, epiphyseal fusion, and long bone lengths and diameters, and relate them to chronological age wherever possible. Several Pleistocene fossils belonging to H. erectus, Neanderthals, and early H. sapiens, whose age-at-death will be estimated from dental microstructure, will be compared to modern humans of similar age to see whether they share a common pattern and timing of dental and/or skeletal growth and development.The broader implications of this study include the first attempt to compare dental and skeletal growth and development in fossils to a large and diverse modern human sample, and to relate it to chronological age. Furthermore, the large modern human sample will be useful for re-evaluation and refinement of osteological standards. This research will contribute to the doctoral dissertation and training of a female graduate student. Finally, this project will foster international collaboration between the United States and institutions in Africa, Asia, and Europe.

现代人类的特征是与最接近的亲戚黑猩猩相比，生长和发展的模式非常缓慢（即个体发育）。在硬组织中，这种趋势在牙齿晚期和骨骼成熟后的晚期爆发中很明显。这种延迟的成熟对于发展大脑以及掌握双足动力和语言是必要的，但是在人类谱系的演变过程中，这种模式何时出现。大多数对现代人类和化石本体发育的研究都集中在牙齿或骨骼发育上，使用其他发育系统作为年龄代理。但是，为了正确理解现代人类个体发生模式的起源及其对人类进化的影响，不仅要了解牙齿和骨骼生长之间的关系至关重要，而且还要了解发育事件的时机。通过结合来自不同地理区域的现代人类骨骼样本的牙齿和骨骼生长和发育数据的数据。它将包括有关牙齿形成和喷发的数据，几个颅骨成熟指标，epiphyseal融合以及长骨长度和直径，并尽可能将它们与年龄相关联。将从牙科微观结构中估算的几种属于直立的人，尼安德特人和早期的萨皮恩斯的更新世化石，它们的死亡将被估算为相似年龄的现代人类，以查看它们是否具有共同的模式和时机牙齿和/或骨骼生长和发育。这项研究的广泛含义包括将化石的牙齿和骨骼生长和发育与大型多样化的现代人类样本进行比较，并将其与年龄相关联。此外，大型现代人类样本将有助于重新评估和完善骨学标准。这项研究将有助于一名女研究生的博士学位论文和培训。最后，该项目将促进美国与非洲，亚洲和欧洲机构之间的国际合作。