Unlocking the hard tissue record of primate adaptability to environmental change

解锁灵长类动物适应环境变化的硬组织记录

• 批准号: 1640477
• 负责人: Shannon McFarlin
• 金额: $ 39.4万
• 依托单位: George Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-08-15 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1640477&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Unlocking; hard; tissue; record; primate

Modern humans have been able adapt to a diverse range of natural environments, and non-human primates can provide relevant models for understanding the evolutionary origins of this adaptive versatility in humans. This project will investigate variability in growth patterns and diet in response to early life environments, using climate, behavioral, and skeletal data for savanna baboons. The research will advance knowledge about relationships between life history flexibility and environmental variability in the human and non-human primate evolutionary record. The project also will support broader participation of underrepresented groups in STEM research, student mentoring and training, and public engagement through Smithsonian Institution programs and exhibits. Infrastructure for research and education will be enhanced by establishing the first available skeletal collection representing primates from a well-documented savannah habitat, thought to have been an important environment shaping early human adaptation. Results from the study will be communicated online, and to local wildlife managers. Key questions in biological anthropology concern the role that environmental variability played in shaping modern human behavior and life history, which increases fertility and maximizes offspring investment over a prolonged juvenile dependency. Developmental plasticity, including the capacity to respond to environmental change through shifts in growth rates, maturational timing, and other traits, is a proposed mechanism underlying the modern human life history strategy. However, the evolutionary origins and ecological context of life history flexibility in the human lineage remain poorly understood. This project integrates long-term climate data with developmental, behavioral and ecological data in wild baboons from a single, highly dynamic environment in the Amboseli basin, Kenya, to test how early life physical and social/maternal environments influence (1) hard tissue microanatomical parameters of dental and body size development, and (2) tooth carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures of diet quality and composition. Specifically, this research investigates whether offspring born into low rainfall and poor maternal/social environments experience negative consequences that are detectable in hard tissues, including lower quality diets, reduced investment in physical growth, and increased susceptibility to later-life stress. Elucidating how early environmental challenges in Amboseli baboons are mediated by developmental and behavioral mechanisms will improve understanding of this species' resilience despite significant environmental change. Further, by contributing a framework for deciphering the proximate ecological context of life history variation in hard tissues, this research has transformative potential for investigating relationships between adaptive versatility and environmental change during human evolution.

现代人类已经能够适应各种自然环境，非人类灵长类动物可以提供相关模型，以了解这种适应性多功能性在人类中的进化起源。该项目将使用稀树草原狒狒的气候，行为和骨骼数据来调查生长模式和饮食的变化。这项研究将提高有关人类和非人类灵长类动物进化记录中生活历史灵活性与环境变异性之间关系的知识。该项目还将支持代表性不足的团体在STEM研究，学生指导和培训以及通过Smithsonian机构计划和展览中的公众参与的更广泛参与。通过建立代表有据可查的萨凡纳栖息地的灵长类动物的第一个可用的骨骼收集，将增强用于研究和教育的基础设施，这是一个重要的环境，塑造了早期人类适应性的适应性。该研究的结果将在线传达给当地的野生动植物经理。 生物人类学中的关键问题涉及环境变异在塑造现代人类行为和生活史上发挥的作用，从而增加了生育能力并最大程度地提高了长期少年依赖性的后代投资。发展可塑性，包括通过变化，成熟时机和其他特征来应对环境变化的能力，是现代人类生活历史策略的基础机制。然而，人类谱系中生活史的进化起源和生态环境仍然知之甚少。 This project integrates long-term climate data with developmental, behavioral and ecological data in wild baboons from a single, highly dynamic environment in the Amboseli basin, Kenya, to test how early life physical and social/maternal environments influence (1) hard tissue microanatomical parameters of dental and body size development, and (2) tooth carbon and nitrogen stable isotope signatures of diet quality and composition.具体来说，这项研究调查了出生于低降雨和较差的母亲/社会环境的后代是否会在硬组织中检测到负面后果，包括降低质量饮食，减少对身体生长的投资以及增加对后期压力的易感性。 阐明了安国人狒狒的早期环境挑战是如何通过发展和行为机制介导的，尽管环境变化很大，但仍将改善对该物种的韧性的理解。 此外，通过贡献一个框架来破译硬组织生活历史变化的生态环境，这项研究具有研究人类进化过程中适应性多功能性与环境变化之间关系的变革潜力。