How did our masticatory system evolve? Investigating bone and teeth microstructure in extant and fossil apes through X-ray synchrotron microtomography

我们的咀嚼系统是如何进化的？

基本信息

批准号：
2888465
负责人：
金额：
--
依托单位：
University of Cambridge
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Studentship
财政年份：
2023
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2023 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2888465
关键词：
How did our masticatory system

项目摘要

Teeth and the bony structures that support them, mandible and maxillae, are key sources of evolutionary information about taxonomy, life-history, growth rates, diet and health. Yet, new technologies, such as synchrotron radiography, are revealing a whole new dimension of information by providing micron-level detail on internal and external structures that throw new light on patterns of diversity and processes of diversification. These novel technologies have only rarely been applied to fossil hominids - our direct hominin ancestors as well as the ancestors of living great apes; the single study of an australopithecine fossil by Beaudet and colleagues (2021) shows their immense potential. This project aims at generating, for the first time, a large comparative dataset of synchrotron x-rays of fossil and contemporary African apes, including hominins, building on the collaboration by Beaudet with the new Diamond Light Source in the United Kingdom and Mirazon Lahr with the National Museums of Kenya, as well as develop new protocols of data capture and analysis. Through these, the project will establish the diversity in growth rates of different elements of the masticatory system of apes, describe the diversity observed in internal dental structures of taxonomic and biological relevance, provide age-atdeath estimates of immature specimens that will greatly enhance our understanding of the evolution of hominid lifehistories.

牙齿和支撑它们的骨结构（下颌骨和上颌骨）是有关分类、生活史、生长速度、饮食和健康的进化信息的关键来源。然而，同步加速器放射线照相术等新技术通过提供内部和外部结构的微米级细节，揭示了全新的信息维度，为多样性模式和多样化过程提供了新的视角。这些新技术很少应用于化石原始人类——我们的原始人类祖先以及现存类人猿的祖先； Beaudet 及其同事（2021 年）对南方古猿化石的一项研究显示了它们的巨大潜力。该项目旨在首次生成化石和当代非洲猿类（包括古人类）同步加速器 X 射线的大型比较数据集，以 Beaudet 与英国新钻石光源和 Mirazon Lahr 的合作为基础。肯尼亚国家博物馆，以及开发新的数据捕获和分析协议。通过这些，该项目将确定猿类咀嚼系统不同元素生长速率的多样性，描述在分类学和生物学相关性的内部牙齿结构中观察到的多样性，提供未成熟标本的死亡年龄估计，这将极大地增强我们的理解原始人类生活史的演变。