Marian Dagosto, PhD Associate Professor Cell and Molecular Biology Evolution of postcranial anatomy and locomotor systems in primates Curricula: Evolutionary Biology E-mail:   m-dagosto@northwestern.edu

The focus of my research efforts is the understanding of the functional, adaptive, and phylogenetic significance of the anatomy of the limb skeleton in extant and fossil prosimian primates. The fossil members of this group, the Adapidae and Omomyidae, are the earliest known primates, and all living primates are thought to have descended from these forms. This group of primates, then, can provide clues to the early adaptive history of the order, and help identify the probable selective forces which shaped the basic morphology of this group.

I have been concentrating on two primary areas of inquiry in this field. The first is the functional analysis of the limb anatomy of fossil primates, including description of newly discovered primate remains, an analysis of the probable locomotor behaviors of fossil species, and the phylogenetic implications of their morphological features. Current projects in this area include analysis of the postcranium of the omomyid primates and of the Eocene Chinese eosimiids.

The second area is the "ecomorphology" of primate locomotion: the documentation of locomotor behavior and its ecological context (relationship to food resources, forest type) and its relationship to interspecific differences in morphology in living primates. My current project in this area is the positional behavior of the Philippine tarsier, Tarsius syrichta. I am also investigating geographic variation in skull size and shape in the genus Tarsius and its implications for the phylogeny and biogeographic history of these primates.

Publications:

Gebo, D.L. and Dagosto, M. (2004) Anthropoid Origins: Postcranial evidence from the Eocene of Asia. In Kay, R.F. and Ross, C., eds. Anthropoid Origins. Kluwer/Academic Press.

Dagosto, M., Gebo, D.L., Dolino, C.N. (2003) Natural History of the Philippine tarsier. In: P. Wright, E. Simons, and S. Gursky, eds. Tarsiers, Past Present and Future . Rutgers University Press. Pp. 237-259

Dagosto, M. Anthropoid Origins and Diversification. (2002) In: Primate Evolution. W.C. Hartwig, ed. Cambridge University Press. Pp.125-132

Gebo, D.L., Dagosto, M. Beard, C. and Qi, T. and W. Jingwen. (2000) The oldest known anthropoid postcranial fossils and the early evolution of higher primates. Nature 404:276-278.