Americas Program Dissertation Enhancement Research: Historical Biogeography and Systematic Relationships of South American Murid Rodents

9417252耶茨美国项目奖将支持豪尔赫·萨拉扎-布拉沃的论文研究，豪尔赫·萨拉查-布拉沃是玻利维亚博士生，在新墨西哥大学特里·L·耶茨博士的指导下工作。这项研究将在厄瓜多尔进行，研究南美洲小鼠的历史生物地理和系统关系。这位研究人员将使用广泛分布在南美大陆的一种鼠类--乙型啮齿动物来测试目前在南美洲的两种Murid进化模型。这些假说以区域分支图的形式进行了具体的预测，可以用分支学方法进行检验，但这两个模型都没有得到充分的检验。该项目将根据线粒体DNA序列数据的分支分析和与其他亲缘关系密切的属的外群比较，评估两个远缘关系属的系统发育关系。如果这两个假说都不符合系统发育关系，那么就会对其他假说进行检验。该项目将使宏观生态和生物地理学领域受益，因为它将阐明决定当地和大陆范围内物种丰富度的历史因素，这反过来将有助于确定和加强潜在的保护兴趣区域。这些结果还可以与鸟类生物学家和其他人的结果结合起来，以加强和/或修订南美洲开阔植被的进化假说。***

9417252 Yates This Americas Program award will support the dissertation research of Jorge Salazar-Bravo, a Bolivian doctoral student working under the direction of Dr. Terry L. Yates at the University of New Mexico. The research, on the historical biogeography and systematic relationships of South American Murid rodents, will take place in Ecuador. The researcher will test two current models of murid evolution in South America using sigmodontine rodents, a genus of mice widely distributed on the continent. The hypotheses have specific predictions in the form of area cladograms that can be tested using a cladistic approach, but neither of the two models have been adequately tested. This project will estimate the phylogenetic relationships of two distantly related genera of the sigmodontine rodents, based on the cladistic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data and outgroup comparisons with other closely related genera. If neither of the hypotheses fit the phylogenetic relationships, alternative hypotheses will be tested. This project will benefit the areas of macroecology and biogeography because it will shed light on historical factors that determine species richness at the local and continental scale, which, in turn, will help in defining and strengthening areas of potential interest for conservation purposes. The results may also be used in combination with those of avian biologists and others to strengthen and/or revise hypotheses of the evolution of open vegetation in South America. ***