The primary purpose of this Dissertation Improvement Award is to investigate the role of developmental principles in the growth of non-human primates. Generally, it is assumed that growth patterns of animals are responses to the need for functional adaptations. However, it has been know for some time that alterations in the growth of one area of the body can greatly affect the growth and form of structures elsewhere. Specifically, the body's growth gradients along anterior-posterior and dorsal-ventral axes, potentially could greatly affect form and function. In this research, the PI will apply the concepts of relative growth to data derived from primates. Skeletal material from related genera within a subfamilies will be compared for a variety of length and breadth measures. In this way the interactions of growth gradients can be analyzed for their role in producing the final phenotype.
