HEИндивидуална стипендия2023–2025

CRAHL · Comparative Reconstruction of Ape and Hominin Locomotor ontogeny

„Хоризонт Европа“ — Действия „Мария Склодовска-Кюри“

Период: 2023-01-09 → 2025-01-08
Финансиране от ЕС: 203 464 €
Участници: 1
Схема: HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Линиите свързват координатора с партньорите.

Накратко на български

Развитието на движението при приматите се анализира чрез промените в гъстотата на гъбачестата кост, например при прехода от катерене към ходене. Това помага да се разбере как предците на хората са evolved от живот в дърветата към изцяло наземно ходене.

Този кратък обзор е генериран от изкуствен интелект

Кратко обяснение, генерирано от езиков модел по текста на CORDIS. Оригиналът е по-долу.

Резултати накратко

Comparative Reconstruction of Ape and Hominin Locomotor ontogeny

Human locomotion is unique among apes. Unlike our closest relatives, humans are fully bipedal, exclusively terrestrial, and develop slowly (altricial). In contrast, other apes are at least partially arboreal and mature more quickly (precocial). Fossil evidence suggests that our early ancestors (hominins) followed a more ape-like developmental trajectory, with a combination of arboreal and terrestrial movement and a precocial pattern of locomotor development. To study the evolution of hominin locomotion and its developmental changes, we need reliable skeletal traits that respond to locomotor stress and can be identified in the fossil record. Great apes provide a natural comparative framework for this research because they exhibit diverse locomotor behaviors throughout their development. For example: Humans are fully terrestrial and bipedal from an early age. Chimpanzees and gorillas start life as highly arboreal but transition to terrestrial knuckle-walking as they mature, with chimpanzees remaining arboreal for a longer period. Orangutans and gibbons remain predominantly arboreal throughout their lives. Objectives of the Project This project aimed to improve our understanding of the evolution and development of locomotion in human ancestors. Specifically, it sought to answer how humans transitioned from an arboreal and rapidly developing ancestor to the fully terrestrial and slowly developing species we are today. The research focused on two main objectives: Examining how locomotion develops in humans and non-human primates and its impact on skeletal structure. Like muscles, bones adapt to the stresses they experience during life. This study focused on trabecular bone—the spongy inner bone structure—which responds dynamically to locomotor forces by adjusting its density and organization. By analyzing how trabecular bone changes during development in primates with different locomotor strategies, we can determine whether these skeletal adaptations leave a detectable signature of movement patterns. Applying these findings to the hominin fossil record to reconstruct locomotor development in our ancestors. The study sought to understand how quickly hominins could walk and climb independently and whether they, like modern apes, exhibited a strongly arboreal phase in early development. By integrating comparative primate data with fossil evidence, this research provides new insights into the evolutionary shifts that shaped human locomotion and developmental patterns.

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз

Цел на проекта

Of all the traits that define humans, bipedal locomotion likely evolved first. How and why bipedalism evolved in the fossil human (hominin) lineage are fundamental questions in palaeoanthropology. An underexplored dimension of “how” bipedalism evolved is its growth and development (ontogeny). Humans locomotion develops much slower than those of other apes. Modern humans are also fully terrestrial, while the other African apes transition from predominantly arboreal locomotion using their upper limbs as juveniles to predominantly terrestrial knuckle-walking as adults. The importance of arboreal locomotion throughout hominin evolution has remained debated since the 1980s. However, since all extant apes are most arboreal as juveniles, the answers to this debate are most likely found in juvenile hominins.We know little about hominin locomotor ontogeny and the behaviour of juveniles due to (1) a lack of fossils and (2) limited tools for behavioural reconstruction. CRAHL applies recent methodological advances to both well-studied and newly discovered fossils to overcome these limitations, and will be the first to investigate the evolutionary pattern of hominin locomotor development. Bones can dynamically adapt to changes in loading direction, magnitude, and frequency by altering the structure of trabecular bone, the 3D mesh-like structure found underneath joint surfaces. Trabecular structure can therefore provide a functional record of developmental variation in loading conditions as animals learn to locomote. By using state-of-the-art methods for analysing age-related changes in trabecular bone structure throughout the skeleton, CRAHL will reconstruct how quickly hominins learned to locomote and the variety of postures they assumed, including arboreal versus terrestrial locomotion. By combining state-of-the-art methods new fossil discoveries, CRAHL sheds new light on the evolution of two defining human traits: slow development and fully terrestrial bipedalism.

Оригинален текст от CORDIS (на английски).

Участници

STICHTING NATURALIS BIODIVERSITY CENTER · LeidenКоординаторНидерландия