NYCEP Collaborative Research Projects

One of the most successful team-based laboratory projects is the research conducted by the NYCEP Morphometrics Group, based at the AMNH. This group is directed by Eric Delson (CUNY & AMNH), with major input from Jim Rohlf (SUNY, CUNY adjunct), in collaboration with Will Harcourt-Smith (postdoc at AMNH & CUNY) and a number of recent NYCEP graduates and current students. It is funded by NSF grant ACI 99-82351 (PIs Delson, David Reddy and the late Leslie Marcus). The morphometrics group is developing new approaches to the 3-D analysis of morphology for application to studies of phylogeny, systematics, biogeography and ontogeny. It has produced a number of dissertations, ranging from Neanderthal taxonomy to Miocene ape phylogeny to growth patterns in colobine monkeys, and has supported four postdoctoral fellows. Ongoing projects include: a morphometric database for different types of metric data (caliper measurements, 3-d coordinates), images (surface scans, CT scans, digital photographs) and metadata (locality, altitude, age, sex, stratigraphy, etc.) across higher primates; visualization of phylogenetic change and 3D reconstruction of inferred "ancestors" on a phylogenetic tree; techniques to analyze 3-d outlines and surfaces, especially of the elbow and ankle; and visualization of shape change in high dimensional data. One of the many collaborative projects that have been produced by this research program involves recent Ph.D.s Katerina Harvati, Stephen Frost and Kieran McNulty, who combined their data on a wide array of primate crania as models for inter- and intra- specific morphological variation; they applied this variation standard to a comparison between Neanderthals and modern humans in order to test the proposed subspecific status of this fossil human group (link to PNAS paper?). Numerous students have been involved in morphometrics research, either in internships or as part of their doctoral projects. Frost, Harvati, Manser, McNulty and Robinson have completed their PhDs (see the NYCEP PhD section of the NYCEP student page), while morphometric dissertations are in progress by Baab, Flattmann and Peburn.

The Awash Baboon Project in Ethiopia, co-directed by Cliff Jolly of NYU, is another example of a large-scale, interdisciplinary collaborative NYCEP project that combines field study with laboratory analysis. It was begun in 1973 in collaboration with Hans Kummer (University of Zurich) and F.L. Brett (University College London), and since 1982 has been run in collaboration with Jane Phillips-Conroy (Washington University, St. Louis). This project is one of the longest-running studies of primate populations in the wild, the first to investigate a naturally-occurring primate hybrid zone (between hamadryas and anubis baboons) and the first to apply "hands-on" methods of live-trapping, sampling, and release to primate populations that were concurrently the subject of behavioral observation. This work has produced a unique genetic, developmental and biomedical database that extends over nearly thirty years, which is being analyzed in close collaboration with Todd Disotell (NYU), Larissa Swedell (CUNY), and NYCEP students from various institutions working in the molecular laboratory at NYU. Among other research foci, Jolly, Disotell and collaborators have used intraspecific gene genealogies based on mitochondrial loci and microsatellite markers to investigate the history of contact and hybridization for hamadryas and anubis baboons. This long-term study has proven quite important to the formulation of modern conceptions of species boundaries and the role of hybridization and reproductive isolation in understanding a population's evolutionary history. A number of NYCEP students from different institutions have completed or are working on doctoral projects related to this work (see Detwiler, Dirks, Hemmalin, Newman, Swedell, Wildman, Woolley-Barker, and Uddin on NYCEP PhDs section of Students page).

A new project currently being developed by Jolly and Delson, in collaboration with Disotell (NYU), Lehn (AMNH), McCann (WCS), Oates (CUNY), Swedell (CUNY) and the morphometrics team, integrates the work of faculty from all NYCEP institutions and truly exemplifies the interdisciplinary nature of the program. This project will examine the systematics of Papio baboons across Africa from morphological, genetic, and behavioral perspectives. These monkeys are often used as a model for understanding variability in early human populations, because (like humans) they are large terrestrial primates with a complex pattern of genetic and morphological variation. Each of the numerous zones of contact (and hybridization) between pairs of neighboring morphological variants will be subjected to laboratory and field studies (building on the work of the Awash Baboon Project) to clarify genetic and morphological variation and to elucidate patterns of interbreeding. The morphometrics group has already digitized hundreds of baboon crania in a project recently submitted for publication, and additional targeted specimens will be added for this work. Coat color patterns will also be analyzed quantitatively, and patterns of morphological and genetic variation (taxonomic, geographic, sexual) across Africa will be studied. Several student dissertations (e.g., Burrell) are already planned as part of this project, and we expect it will receive grant funding to support other, new NYCEP graduate students.