Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Evolution of Locomotor Specializations in the Context of Adaptive Plasticity

博士论文研究：自适应可塑性背景下运动专业化的演变

• 批准号: 2341351
• 负责人: Scott Williams
• 金额: $ 4.01万
• 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: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-03-01 至 2026-02-28
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2341351&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Evolution; Locomotor

Plasticity refers to alterations to an organism’s behavior, anatomy, or physiology in response to environmental conditions and can lead to the evolution of novel features and behaviors. Many hypotheses regarding the origin of hominin bipedalism (walking on two legs), one of the earliest defining features of the human lineage, involve a phase of plasticity. This doctoral dissertation project examines the role of plasticity in primate locomotor specializations to advance knowledge about human bipedalism by placing humans within a broader primate context. This research highlights the potential early stages of the evolution of bipedalism, and findings from this research can inform future interpretations of the human fossil record. This research supports STEM training and mentorship of underrepresented high school and undergraduate students. The project has two main objectives. The first objective is to investigate the relationship between plasticity and evolvability of limb bones in reference to the locomotor repertoire of 15 primate species. The investigators collect and analyze 3D landmark data from limb bones across humans, apes, and monkeys with varying degrees of specialization. For the second objective, a robotic simulation approach is used to model how plasticity of locomotor repertoire can result in the origin of novel behaviors, as well as impact fitness and extinction risk. Robotic models based on six modern primate species and four hominin fossil species are run through a series of simulated environments. The algorithm for these simulations links two different forms of robotic modeling – evolutionary and developmental – which can be applied to other instances of adaptive plasticity in primates and made available for other researchers to use.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.

可塑性是指生物体因环境条件而发生的行为、解剖学或生理学的改变，并可能导致新特征和行为的进化，有关人类双足行走（两条腿行走）起源的许多假设，这是最早的定义之一。该博士论文项目研究了可塑性在灵长类运动专门化中的作用，通过将人类置于更广泛的灵长类背景中来推进有关人类双足行走的知识。研究强调了两足动物进化的潜在早期阶段，这项研究的结果可以为未来对人类化石记录的解释提供信息。该研究支持对代表性不足的高中生和本科生进行 STEM 培训和指导。该项目有两个主要目标。目的是根据 15 种灵长类动物的运动能力来研究肢体骨骼的可塑性和进化性之间的关系。研究人员收集并分析了人类、猿类和猿类肢体骨骼的 3D 标志性数据。对于第二个目标，使用机器人模拟方法来模拟运动能力的可塑性如何导致新行为的起源，以及基于六种现代灵长类动物机器人模型的影响。这些模拟的算法将两种不同形式的机器人模型（进化模型和发育模型）联系起来，这些模型可以应用于灵长类动物适应性可塑性的其他实例，并可供其他研究人员使用。到该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。