Description du projet
Étudier la cinématique chez les primates pour enrichir les modèles informatiques et mieux comprendre notre évolution
Les charges mécaniques auxquelles sont soumis les os affecte le remodelage osseux. La contraction des muscles, les impacts subis, par exemple lors de la marche, ou l’attraction des forces gravitationnelles – tous ces phénomènes modulent les interactions complexes entre la formation et la résorption osseuses. La perte osseuse à court terme subie par les astronautes dans un environnement de microgravité, qui peut être partiellement compensée par la pratique rigoureuse d’exercices physiques dans l’espace, en constitue un exemple simple. À très long terme, à l’échelle de l’évolution, le remodelage osseux a aidé nos ancêtres humains à s’adapter à de nouvelles postures et à de nouveaux mouvements comme la bipédie. Malgré la nécessité de comprendre les relations entre forme et fonction afin de mieux appréhender notre cheminement évolutif, de nombreuses questions restent sans réponses. Le projet DeMol combine des études cinématiques sur les primates avec des méthodes avancées de calcul et de comparaison phylogénétique pour combler ces lacunes.
Objectif
The challenge of better knowing the complex relationship between bone's morphology and function has yielded tens of articles since the beginning of the last century and is essential for making positional behavioural inferences on fossil taxa. Despite its relevance, the form-function relationship is still poorly understood. Based on this premise, this project focuses on deciphering the functional loading environment and its influence on skeletal design in the hindlimb of living primates and shedding light on the locomotor evolution of fossil apes and early hominins. The fossil apes included in this project constitute key taxa for understanding the positional behaviour evolution within the Hominoidea (the apes and humans clade), which has important implications for a better knowledge of the evolutionary pathway that led to the specialized locomotor types of extant apes and humans (specialized antipronograde behaviours such as below-branch suspension and human terrestrial bipedalism). To accomplish the aims, this project will rely on diverse, multidisciplinary and innovative techniques, including biomechanical and engineering approaches (e.g. multibody dynamics analysis, computer optimization, machine learning and data science), phylogenetic comparative methods, and collection of experimental data (e.g. recording of live primates kinematics). This project also involves an important component of training for the applicant and several short stays to gain a diversified and unique set of skills and knowledge on the field of paleoprimatology and evolutionary biology. Hence, this project will extend our knowledge on the bone's form-function relationship, as well as the origin, tempo and mode of the hominoids positional behaviour evolution, including key long-lasting questions related to the origins of human bipedalism.
Champ scientifique
- natural sciencesbiological scienceszoologymammalogyprimatology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesdata science
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesevolutionary biology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
- social sciencessociologyanthropologyphysical anthropology
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinateur
M13 9PL Manchester
Royaume-Uni