 |
 |
|
|
Center for the Study of Human Origins Department
of 25 Waverly Place telephone: |
Position:
Limb Ontogeny, Function, and Ancestral Growth Patterns in Catarrhines My research focuses on the development of key functional segments of limb bones and how limb growth relates to changes in anatomical mechanical advantage and locomotor behavior across various life history stages. It has been well documented that changes in body and limb size can occur as evolution works on the underlying developmental patterns by altering the onset, offset, or rate of growth during a particular developmental stage (e.g. as a result of heterochrony). Dissociations and disruptions of the ancestral relationships of ontogeny result in either a) retardation of the developmental rate and consequent retention of juvenile characters (paedomorphosis) or b) acceleration of developmental rate and enhanced development of ancestral adult characters (peramorphosis). Alterations in the underlying developmental baseline in the postcranial skeleton of catarrhines may cause adult differences in limb proportions and it is these differences in limb proportions that correlate with locomotor adaptations. Yet, how proportional differences develop during ontogeny and whether all catarrhines start with a similar underlying pattern has not been well studied. Understanding the baseline pattern of ontogeny in the limb skeleton of modern catarrhines will help to identify their ancestral growth patterns and when changes in developmental trajectories occurred in fossil hominins. My dissertation asks: 1) when and how do changes in limb proportions begin to manifest across humans, apes, and monkeys and 2) how does growth in limb length influence anatomical mechanical advantage and possible locomotor behavior. Thus, my dissertation considers the ontogeny of functionally derived morphological features across Homininae and Papionini and will contribute to catarrhine development by examining relationships between ontogeny, function, and phylogeny that result in a diversity of adult limb proportions.
|
||||
