Systematics of Recent and Fossil Conidae

这个项目的重点是一个最大的家庭， 海洋腹足类软体动物芋螺科 这个家庭主要由 热带海洋蜗牛是重要的，因为它非常高， 多样性，其许多物种的广泛地理范围， 作为一个主要的捕食群体，主要在 印度-西太平洋区域的热带浅海， 它的神经毒性毒液，通常用于 压倒猎物生物，已夺去至少30人的生命; 毒液肽在 神经生物学研究的细胞膜蛋白， 离子输运 家庭也是一种模式， 进化适应辐射特性的许多群体 印度-西太平洋的海洋生物。 这些辐射 对浅水区的丰富性做出了重要贡献 与其他海洋生物相比， 环境. 芋螺科起源于 新生代。 化石出现在第三纪， 第四纪地质记录;主要的扩张发生在 始新世和中新世。 这个长期项目的总体目标是阐明 物种多样性、形态学、 适应不同的环境、分布和生态 在芋螺科。 在拟议的赠款期间，主要目标是 改进物种分类和鉴定系统， 这个复杂的分类学上非常困难的科。 客观， 将应用数量分类学方法， 模式标本的研究和物种的身份描述，通过 1840年将完成，一个重要的修正研究 将进行分组。 该项目将整合研究 化石继续分类，比较生物学， 最近物种的地理学研究。 结果可能 增加对进化过程的理解， 热带地区的高度生物多样性以及 这些模式的进化辐射的组织 海洋生物群落。

This project focuses on one of the largest families of marine gastropod molluscs, the Conidae. This family of mainly tropical marine snails is important because of its very high diversity, the broad geographic range of many of its species, its ecological role as a dominant predatory group, primarily in shallow tropical seas of the Indo-West Pacific region, and its unusual danger to man. Its neurotoxic venom, normally used to overpower prey organisms, has claimed at least 30 human lives; the venom peptides are becoming increasingly significant in neurobiological studies of cell membrane proteins that regulate ion transport. The family also serves as a model of a type of evolutionary adaptive radiation characteristic of many groups of marine organisms in the Indo-West Pacific. These radiations have contributed importantly to the richness of the shallow-water marine biota of this vast region, in contrast to other marine environments. The Conidae originated at or just preceding the Cenozoic era. Fossils occur throughout the Tertiary and Quaternary geologic record; the major expansions occurred in the Eocene and Miocene epochs. The overall goal of this long-term project is to elucidate important evolutionary trends in species diversity, morphological adaptations to different environments, distribution, and ecology in the Conidae. For the proposed grant period the main goal is to improve the taxonomy and identification system of species in this complex and taxonomically very difficult family. Objective, quantitative taxonomic methods will be applied, a chronological study of type specimens and identity of species described through 1840 will be completed, and a revisionary study of one important subgroup will be made. The project will integrate study of fossils with continuing taxonomic, comparative biological, and biogeographic studies of recent species. The results may increase understanding of the evolutionary processes that lead to high biotic diversity in tropical regions and of the impact of these patterns of evolutionary radiations on the organization of communities of marine organisms.