Collaborative Research: REVSYS: Systematic Revision of the Etherioidea, the Freshwater Mussels (Mollusca: Unionoida) of the Gondwanan Continents

美国自然科学院的丹尼尔·格拉夫博士与伊利诺伊大学的凯文·卡明斯合作，获得了一项拨款，以记录一组被称为以太纲淡水贻贝的南半球软体动物的多样性和进化关系。这些动物之所以引起生物学家的兴趣，是因为它们广泛分布在南美、非洲、马达加斯加、印度和澳大利亚，而且它们的生活史包括寄生在鱼身上的迷人的幼虫阶段。最近的分析表明，以太类淡水贻贝彼此之间关系密切，这与它们在南部大陆的巨大地理范围相结合，表明这些模式是古代大陆漂移的结果。这项研究将通过合成博物馆中收藏的大量关于淡水贻贝的动物学信息来检验这些进化关系和生物地理过程的假说，这些信息被记录在超过250年的生物文献中。其结果将是对近200种以太纲淡水贻贝进行完全的综合和重新分类。这项研究产生的数据和结论不仅将通过传统媒体提供，而且还将利用光盘和互联网(http://clade.acnatsci.org/mussel).)等现代传播手段虽然科学家和环保官员会对这些信息感兴趣，但它也将为教师、学生和所有对更好地了解他们的世界感兴趣的公众服务。除了为一个有趣的、重要的和濒危的动物提供一个新的科学视角外，这项研究还将通过实践研究经验来培养有前途的生物学家。

A grant has been awarded to Dr. Daniel Graf of the Academy of Natural Sciences in collaboration with Kevin Cummings of the University of Illinois to document the diversity and evolutionary relationships of a group of southern hemisphere mollusks known as etherioidean freshwater mussels. These animals are of interest to biologists because of their wide distribution on South America, Africa, Madagascar, India and Australia and because they have a life cycle that involves a fascinating larval stage which is parasitic upon fish. Recent analyses indicate that etherioidean freshwater mussels are closely related to each other, and this, combined with their enormous geographic range on the southern continents suggests that these patterns are the result of ancient continental drift. This research will test these hypotheses of evolutionary relationship and biogeographical processes by synthesizing the vast amounts of zoological information about freshwater mussels that is housed in museums and recorded in over 250 years of biological literature. The result will be a complete synthesis and reclassification of the nearly 200 species of etherioidean freshwater mussels. The data and conclusions generated by this research will not only be made available through traditional media but will also take advantage of modern means of dissemination such as CD-ROMs and the internet (http://clade.acnatsci.org/mussel). While this information will be of interest to scientists and conservation officials, it will also serve teachers, students and all members of the public interested in better understanding their world. Besides providing a novel scientific perspective on an interesting, important and imperiled fauna, this study will also serve to train up-and-coming biologists through hands-on research experience.