Abstract

The reconstruction of the masticatory(chewing) functions of various hominid species through the analysis of fossils is a fundamental method of studying human evolution. An accurate reconstruction of mastication is essential to understand both the selective pressures imposed by environments upon early humans and the dramatic alterations of anatomical structures that have occurred through the course of human evolution. The objectives of the proposed project are to explore the use of the finite element method as a tool in anthropological research and to determine the functionality of the morphological traits in different hominoid mandibles. We expect that the analyses will provide more rigorous criteria for the selection of traits in constructing the phylogeny of early hominids. The application of the finite element method in the study of early hominoid mandibles represents a inter-disciplinary research project that has the potential to both significantly advance the analysis procedures used in anthropological research and to test current theories on early hominid evolution.

  Funding Agency

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Center for Research Resources (NCRR)
Type
Biotechnology Resource Grants (P41)
Project #
5P41RR006009-07
Application #
5225235
Study Section
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
7
Fiscal Year
1996
Total Cost
Indirect Cost

  Publications

Simakov, Nikolay A; Kurnikova, Maria G (2018) Membrane Position Dependency of the pKa and Conductivity of the Protein Ion Channel. J Membr Biol 251:393-404
Yonkunas, Michael; Buddhadev, Maiti; Flores Canales, Jose C et al. (2017) Configurational Preference of the Glutamate Receptor Ligand Binding Domain Dimers. Biophys J 112:2291-2300
Hwang, Wonmuk; Lang, Matthew J; Karplus, Martin (2017) Kinesin motility is driven by subdomain dynamics. Elife 6:
Earley, Lauriel F; Powers, John M; Adachi, Kei et al. (2017) Adeno-associated Virus (AAV) Assembly-Activating Protein Is Not an Essential Requirement for Capsid Assembly of AAV Serotypes 4, 5, and 11. J Virol 91:
Subramanian, Sandeep; Chaparala, Srilakshmi; Avali, Viji et al. (2016) A pilot study on the prevalence of DNA palindromes in breast cancer genomes. BMC Med Genomics 9:73
Ramakrishnan, N; Tourdot, Richard W; Radhakrishnan, Ravi (2016) Thermodynamic free energy methods to investigate shape transitions in bilayer membranes. Int J Adv Eng Sci Appl Math 8:88-100
Zhang, Yimeng; Li, Xiong; Samonds, Jason M et al. (2016) Relating functional connectivity in V1 neural circuits and 3D natural scenes using Boltzmann machines. Vision Res 120:121-31
Lee, Wei-Chung Allen; Bonin, Vincent; Reed, Michael et al. (2016) Anatomy and function of an excitatory network in the visual cortex. Nature 532:370-4
Murty, Vishnu P; Calabro, Finnegan; Luna, Beatriz (2016) The role of experience in adolescent cognitive development: Integration of executive, memory, and mesolimbic systems. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 70:46-58
Jurkowitz, Marianne S; Patel, Aalapi; Wu, Lai-Chu et al. (2015) The YhhN protein of Legionella pneumophila is a Lysoplasmalogenase. Biochim Biophys Acta 1848:742-51

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