Nayuta Yamashita, Adjunct Professor
(Cell & Neurobiology & Anthropology)

Department of Anthropology
Bishop Medical Teaching and Research Bldg., Room 408
1333 San Pablo St.
Los Angeles, CA 90030
Phone: (323) 442-2755
E-mail: nayutaya@usc.edu
Personal Web Site: college.usc.edu/labs/yamashita

Research

My interests lie in primate diet and feeding behaviors, specifically in the foraging cues that primates use to procure food. I study a group of prosimians called lemurs that are endemic to the island of Madagascar. Because of their independent evolution on Madagascar, lemurs have radiated to fill many niches with corresponding adaptive variation.

My ongoing research is focused on how differences in food properties can affect food choice and how this has can separate sympatric primate species. Mechanical properties of foods (among many other properties) can impose constraints on potential primate predators that allow animals with the necessary morphology or sensory apparatus to take advantage of certain foods that are unavailable to others. I am interested in both how plants defend themselves against herbivory and how primates overcome plant defenses. I have investigated the relationship between tooth morphology and mechanical food properties and found correlated variation between them. My current research has broadened to include other food properties, color and nutrients, to examine the multi-faceted question of how primates make feeding decisions.

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Bio

I started out doing fieldwork in graduate school at Northwestern. I was extremely fortunate in my first fieldwork experience. My graduate advisor, Marian Dagosto, allowed me to follow her to Madagascar as a research assistant on a project involving locomotion in lemurs. I was already interested in the interplay between tooth form and function, and seeing these lemurs navigate in their natural environment added a new dimension of complexity to the relationship. The environmental influences on the primates are numerous and highly variable, and even seemingly simple behaviors require decisions that involve myriad choices. Marian was particularly influential because she was investigating the extent to which skeletal form predicted behavioral performance. Generally the two are correlated, but animals can perform behaviors that are not necessarily predictable from an analysis of their morphology. Understanding functional relationships requires knowledge of how animals behave in their environments. My own thesis work on the relationship between tooth form and dietary plant properties in five lemur species confirmed that there was wide variation behaviorally that was not predictable based on tooth form alone. I am continuing to explore environmental variables that impact functional morphology, which can include reliance on seasonal resources and sympatry and potential competition. My postdoctoral work with Peter Lucas further explored how primates make decisions with respect to their environments. In this case, we investigated the specific cues that primates use while foraging to make feeding decisions.

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Education

1996 Ph.D (Anthropology), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. Thesis title: The relationship between tooth morphology and mechanical dietary properties in two Malagasy lemur families (Lemuridae and Indriidae). Thesis advisor: Dr. Marian Dagosto
1988 B.A. (Anthropology), Rhodes College, Memphis, TN

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Recent Publications

2002 Yamashita, N. Seasonal variation in nutritional components of diet in two lemur species in Madagascar. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Supplement 34. (abstract and paper presentation).
2001 Yamashita, N; Blanchard, M; Sequeira, G. A comparative study of physico-chemical food properties and color in two lemur species. Handbook and Abstracts of the XVIIIth Congress of the International Primatological Society. (abstract and paper presentation).
2000 Yamashita, N. Dietary comparisons of Verreaux's sifaka in different microhabitats in Beza Mahafaly special reserve, Madagascar. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. Supplement 30: 328. (abstract and paper presentation).

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Courses Taught

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Awards and Honors

1994 Sigma Xi grant-in-aid
1993 NSF dissertation improvement grant for "The relationship between mechanical food properties and tooth morphology in two families of Malagasy lemur." SBR-9302279
1993 American Museum of Natural History collection study grant
1992 Sherwood Washburn student paper award (61st annual meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists)
1992 Northwestern University dissertation year grant
1989-1992 summer internships in Division of Mammals (Field Museum of Natural History)
1988-1989 University Fellowship (Northwestern University)
1988 Phi Beta Kappa (Rhodes College)

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Professional Memberships

Reviewer for: American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Journal of Tropical Ecology
Membership: American Association of Physical Anthropologists

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