Doctoral Dissertation Research: Weaned Age Variation and Trace Element Distributions in Primate Teeth

博士论文研究：灵长类动物牙齿的断奶年龄变化和微量元素分布

• 批准号: 1751608
• 负责人: Shannon McFarlin
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 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: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-03-15 至 2022-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1751608&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Weaned; Age

For our human ancestors, a shift toward earlier age at weaning may have contributed to higher reproductive success and population growth. However, the evolutionary context of this adaptive shift is not fully understood, in part because of methodological constraints in obtaining evidence of weaning from the fossil record. This doctoral dissertation project will analyze chemical signatures preserved in the teeth of wild mountain gorillas to determine how those signatures may be related to weaning and socioecological factors. Findings from this project could then serve as a foundation for applying this approach to the human fossil record. This project will include scientific training and mentorship of students, including individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. It will also bolster research collaborations, support public science outreach and education, and inform ongoing primate conservation efforts. The investigators will test a developing method for reconstructing the timing of early-life dietary transitions from the distribution of calcium-normalized strontium and barium intensities in teeth, and to investigate weaning age variation within a single well-documented wild population of Virunga mountain gorillas from Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. The chemical signature of mountain gorilla food resources will be characterized in order to provide a context for interpreting variation in enamel and dentine barium and strontium intensities. Estimated weaned age from trace element analysis will then be compared to longitudinal records on wild mountain gorilla diet and suckling. The following questions will be addressed: 1) How well do trace element distributions in teeth correspond to behavioral observations of suckling and other metrics for determining weaning age (e.g., interbirth interval)? and 2) How does the weaning chemical signature vary within a wild mountain gorilla population? The ability to partner behavioral and chemical data from individuals in this population represents a unique opportunity to test an emerging methodology for recovering relatively high resolution evidence of weaning in the human fossil record.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.

对于我们的人类祖先来说，向断奶时代的较早年龄转变可能导致了更高的生殖成功和人口增长。但是，这种自适应转移的进化背景尚未完全理解，部分原因是方法论限制了从化石记录中获得断奶的证据。该博士学位论文项目将分析保存在野山大猩猩牙齿中的化学特征，以确定这些特征可能与断奶和社会生态因素有关。然后，该项目的发现可以作为将这种方法应用于人类化石记录的基础。 该项目将包括对学生的科学培训和指导，包括来自STEM领域中人数不足的团体的个人。 它还将加强研究合作，支持公共科学宣传和教育，并为正在进行的灵长类动物保护工作提供信息。 研究人员将测试一种开发的方法，用于重建牙齿中钙纳正质的递质和钡强度的分布，并研究单个文献有记录的Virunga Mountain Gorillas的野生野生群体中的断奶年龄变化，从卢旺达国家公园的Volunga Mountain Gorillas的单个野生野生种群中进行研究。为了提供解释牙釉质和牙本质钡和锶强度变化的背景，将对山大猩猩食品资源的化学特征进行特征。然后将将痕量元素分析的估计断奶年龄与野生山大猩猩饮食和哺乳的纵向记录进行比较。将解决以下问题：1）牙齿中的痕量元素分布如何对应于哺乳和其他指标的行为观察，以确定断奶年龄（例如，间隔间隔）？ 2）断奶化学签名在野生大猩猩的种群中有何不同？来自该人群中个人的行为和化学数据的能力是测试新兴方法的独特机会，用于恢复人类化石记录中断奶的分辨率证据。这项奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是值得通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的审查审查标准来通过评估来获得支持的。