We are thrilled to announce that the Paleo-Primate Project has been awarded a prestigious FONDECYT large grant, a significant recognition of our research team’s dedication and innovative work. This grant has been awarded to Felipe Martinez, Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva, Cristian Capelli, René Bobe, and Susana Carvalho, marking a major milestone for our project. With this support, we will develop the research initiative “A comparative framework for hominin phylogeography: genetic structure of baboon species (Papio sp.) in the southernmost Great Rift Valley” over the next four years.
FONDECYT Program
The National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development (FONDECYT) is the main public fund in Chile dedicated to encouraging and promoting the development of basic scientific and technological research. Established in 1981, FONDECYT has financed over 16,000 research projects, greatly benefiting both the scientific community and society. Directed by Luis Gutiérrez Lazo, the program has an annual budget of roughly CLP $130,000,000 (in thousands of Chilean pesos), demonstrating its substantial investment in scientific advancement.
From Phenetics to Genomics
The grant will support the groundbreaking research led by Felipe Martinez, Maria Joana Ferreira da Silva, Cristian Capelli, René Bobe, and Susana Carvalho. Their collaborative efforts will drive forward our understanding of key features of the Papio population of Gorongosa National Park. Gorongosa’s baboons primarily possess the genetic makeup of Chacma baboons. However, their numerous morphological traits typical of yellow baboons indicate past hybridization events [1]. We have been able to confirm introgression occurred [2] and we now aim to understand the timing and extent of the dispersal processes that led to the observed patterns in African baboons, and particularly in the troops in Gorongosa National Park.
Looking Ahead
This FONDECYT grant not only underscores the importance and impact of our research but also enables us to continue pushing the boundaries of scientific discovery. We are excited about the opportunities this funding will bring and look forward to sharing our progress and findings with the wider community.
We extend our heartfelt gratitude to FONDECYT for this incredible support and to our dedicated team members for their relentless pursuit of excellence.
[1] Martinez, F.I., Capelli, C., Ferreira da Silva, M.J., Aldeias, V., Alemseged, Z., Archer, W., Bamford, M., Biro, D., Bobe, R., Braun, D.R., Habermann, J.M., Lüdecke, T., Madiquida, H., Mathe, J., Negash, E., Paulo, L.M., Pinto, M., Stalmans, M., Tátá, F., Carvalho, S., 2019. A missing piece of the Papio puzzle: Gorongosa baboon phenostructure and intrageneric relationships. Journal of Human Evolution. 130, 1–20.
[2] Santander, C., Molinaro, L., Mutti, G., Martínez, F.I., Mathe, J., Ferreira Da Silva, M.J., Caldon, M., Oteo-Garcia, G., Aldeias, V., Archer, W., Bamford, M., Biro, D., Bobe, R., Braun, D.R., Hammond, P., Lüdecke, T., Pinto, M.J., Meira Paulo, L., Stalmans, M., Regala, F.T., Bertolini, F., Moltke, I., Raveane, A., Pagani, L., Carvalho, S., Capelli, C., 2022. Genomic variation in baboons from central Mozambique unveils complex evolutionary relationships with other Papio species. BMC Ecology and Evolution. 22, 44.