Doctoral Dissertation Research: The evolution of early hominin locomotor anatomy

博士论文研究：早期人类运动解剖学的演变

• 批准号: 2141883
• 负责人: David Strait
• 金额: $ 2.6万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2022-03-15 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2141883&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; evolution; early

Bipedalism is the ability to habitually stand and walk upright on two legs and is one of the defining features of humans. Consequently, our understanding of human evolution depends on reconstructing how and why bipedalism evolved. This doctoral dissertation research project uses information about the “family tree” of extinct human species to reconstruct how, when, and why skeletal features that are critical for bipedalism evolved. This reconstruction allows the project investigators to test key hypotheses about human origins, including those concerning the role that environmental factors may have played in shaping our evolutionary history. This study investigates how ecological conditions have influenced human evolution, a line of inquiry that is particularly important in the context of global climate change. This project also supports the research of an early career female scientist from an historically underrepresented group in STEM and contributes to the diversity of scholarship in Biological Anthropology.This research tests two hypotheses relating patterns of character evolution to the ecological, temporal, and geographical contexts in which skeletal traits related to hominin bipedalism evolved. The first hypothesis addresses the patterns and processes by which bipedalism originated and subsequently evolved, as well as the selective history that may have shaped its evolution. The second hypothesis concerns whether the evolution of derived locomotor traits is temporally correlated with paleoenvironmental change and whether incorporating available paleoenvironmental data improves evolutionary models. Patterns of character evolution are analyzed using maximum parsimony and Bayesian inference. Random and non-random evolutionary models are tested to examine which model is the most appropriate for explaining the evolution of hominin locomotor anatomy. The project helps answer several fundamental questions in paleoanthropology: How does phylogeny inform our understanding of the evolution of postcranial traits that function mechanically during bipedalism? What does the pattern of evolution for these traits tell us about how, why, and when bipedalism evolved during human evolution? What are the evolutionary forces driving the evolution of these characters? What are the magnitude and direction of changes in morphological characters that enhance bipedalism? How might changes in bipedal features relate to changes in the environment? Answers to these questions substantially inform our understanding of the evolution of one of the first and most fundamental hominin adaptations.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.

双皮亚主义是能够安全站立并直立在两条腿上的能力，并且是人类的决定性特征之一。因此，我们对人类进化的理解取决于重建如何以及为什么两性主义进化。该博士学位论文研究项目使用有关灭绝的人类“家谱”的信息，以重建如何，何时以及为什么对双皮亚主义至关重要的骨骼特征如何发展。这种重建使项目调查人员能够检验有关人类起源的关键假设，包括有关环境因素在塑造我们进化史上可能发挥的作用的主要假设。这项研究调查了生态条件如何影响人类进化，这在全球气候变化的背景下尤其重要。该项目还支持从历史上代表性不足的STEM中对早期职业女性科学家的研究，并为生物人类学的科学多样性做出了贡献。这项研究检验了两个假设，将角色演化模式与生态，临时，临时和地理环境有关的假设与骨骼特征相关。第一个假设探讨了双性恋起源和随后进化的模式和过程，以及可能塑造其演变的选择性历史。第二个假设涉及衍生运动特征的演变是否与古环境变化暂时相关，以及合并的可用古环境数据是否改善了进化模型。使用最大简约和贝叶斯推断分析了角色演化的模式。测试了随机和非随机进化模型，以检查哪种模型最适合解释人类运动解剖学的进化。该项目有助于回答古人类学中的几个基本问​​题：系统发育如何了解我们对双皮亚主义过程中机械起作用后颅后特征的演变的理解？这些特征的进化模式告诉我们如何，为什么以及何时在人类进化过程中进化？推动这些角色演变的进化力是什么？形态学特征变化的变化的幅度和方向是什么？两足特征的变化与环境变化有何关系？对这些问题的答案实质上，我们对我们对第一个也是最基本的人类适应性之一的演变的发展有所了解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响审查标准，被视为通过评估来获得宝贵的支持。