Dissertation Research: A Hierachical Analysis of PhylogenticRelationships in Bufonidae

蝗科大家族的真正蟾蜍是研究物种多样性模式和过程的丰富资源，但如果不了解该家族成员之间的系统发育关系，就无法实现这一潜力。目前还没有关于蟾科的有力的系统发育假说。虽然该科的庞大规模阻碍了对物种水平的系统发育的估计，但这种详细程度并不需要回答许多问题。相反，我们需要的是了解该科主要亚支之间以及最近分化的物种的小支系之间的系统发育关系。这项研究代表了一种分层的方法来阐明蟾科内部的系统发育关系，并将这些信息应用于了解物种多样性。来自具有代表性的物种的DNA序列数据将被用来评估这些水平上的系统发育关系。根据远缘类群的系统发育假说，将解决两个问题：1)大陆之间的生物地理关系；2)形态创新。在一个物种群内系统发育关系的假设下，我们将研究物种形成的模式和过程。

True toads of the large family Bufonidae are a rich resource for studying pattern and process in species diversification, but the potential cannot be realized without an understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among the family's members. There is no robust phylogenetic hypothesis available for Bufonidae. While the large size of the family prohibits the estimation of a phylogeny resolved to the species level, this level of detail is not required to answer many questions. Instead what is needed is an understanding of the phylogenetic relationships among the major subclades of the family and within small clades of recently diverged species. This study represents a hierarchical approach to the elucidation of phylogenetic relationships within Bufonidae and the application of this information to an understanding of species diversification. DNA sequence data from representative species at two levels of divergence within the family: among distantly related species and within one species group, will be used to estimate phylogenetic relationships at these levels. With a phylogenetic hypothesis for the distantly related taxa, two questions will be addressed: 1) biogeographic relationships among continents and 2) morphological innovation. With a hypothesis of phylogenetic relationships within one species group, patterns and processes of speciation will be studied.