Paleontology: Developmental Analysis of a Speciation Event in the Fossil Record Using the New Geometric Morphometric Methods

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9901484NehmThe research will establish a role for invertebrate paleontology in the evolutionary developmental synthesis by employing geological, paleontological, evolutionary, and developmental data to address several fundamental questions about developmental evolution and speciation: 1) How does ontogeny (growth) evolve before, during, and after speciation? 2) How do ontogenetic patterns and microstructural composition differ within and between species? 3) How does the integration of morphological and microstructural features during ontogeny constrain the direction of potential change during speciation? 4) What paleoecological, sedimentalogical, and biological variables contribute to the duration, direction, and tempo of speciation in this lineage? These questions will be addresses using a new morphmetric analysis technique (geometric morphometric analysis) that is considered by many to be a revolutionary advance in morphological and developmental analysis. This technique has yet to be used extensively by invertebrate paleontologists, despite its success in many other fields of evolutionary inquiry. Investigating the evolution of development through speciation in the fossil record using a new morphometric approach provides an opportunity for invertebrate paleontology to contribute uniquely to evolutionary developmental biology and demonstrate the power of geometric morphometric analysis in paleontological research.