Conflicting Evidence in Waterfowl Systematics

水禽系统学中相互矛盾的证据

• 批准号: 0089760
• 负责人: Michael Sorenson
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Trustees of Boston University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2001
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2001-02-15 至 2007-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0089760&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Conflicting; Evidence; Waterfowl; Systematics

DEB 0089760Michael D. SorensonDr. Michael Sorenson of Boston University has been awarded a grant to construct a comprehensive phylogeny or evolutionary tree for the avian family Anatidae (the ducks, geese, and swans) by comparative DNA sequence analyses. Found on all continents except Antarctica, the waterfowl are economically and culturally important due to their popularity with sport hunters, birders, aviculturalists, and artists. Waterfowl have also figured prominently in evolutionary biology and more recently have become "flagships" for wetlands conservation About 5,000 base pairs of DNA sequence data will be collected for each of the ~150 species of waterfowl. These molecular data will be combined with previously published information on their morphology and behavior to reconstruct the evolutionary relationships among waterfowl species, genera, and sub-families. Preliminary results suggest significant conflict between morphological and molecular evidence and point to a substantial revision of current views of waterfowl phylogeny. This conflict appears to be largely the result of convergent evolution in morphological characters associated with diving. The ecological and behavioral diversity of waterfowl combined with an extensive body of existing comparative data present unparalleled opportunities for the study of molecular, behavioral, morphological, and life history evolution. The realization of this potential, however, relies on the availability of a robust and well-corroborated phylogeny which allows one to discriminate between shared ancestry and adaptation to common environmental conditions as alternative explanations for similarities between species. Comparative analyses will lead to a better understanding of the ecological adaptations of waterfowl and thereby inform the efforts of wildlife managers and conservation biologists. The research also will provide systematists with an exemplary data set for the development of new

Deb 0089760迈克尔·D·索伦森波士顿大学的迈克尔·索伦森获得拨款，通过比较DNA序列分析，为鸭科鸟类(鸭、鹅和天鹅)构建了一个全面的系统发育或进化树。这种水鸟在除南极洲以外的所有大陆上都有发现，由于受到运动猎人、观鸟者、养殖户和艺术家的欢迎，在经济和文化上都具有重要意义。水禽也在进化生物学中发挥了重要作用，最近成为湿地保护的“旗舰”，将为大约150种水禽中的每一种收集约5000个碱基对的DNA序列数据。这些分子数据将与以前发表的关于它们的形态和行为的信息相结合，以重建水鸟物种、属和亚科之间的进化关系。初步结果表明，形态和分子证据之间存在重大冲突，并表明当前水禽系统发育的观点有了实质性的修正。这种冲突似乎很大程度上是与潜水相关的形态特征趋同进化的结果。水鸟的生态和行为多样性，结合大量现有的比较数据，为分子、行为、形态和生活史进化的研究提供了无与伦比的机会。然而，这种潜力的实现依赖于强大和得到充分证实的系统发展史的可用性，这使得人们能够区分共同的祖先和对共同环境条件的适应，作为物种之间相似性的替代解释。比较分析将有助于更好地了解水禽的生态适应，从而为野生动物管理者和保护生物学家的努力提供参考。这项研究还将为系统学家提供新的开发的示范数据集