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

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笔赠款，以记录一组被称为以太淡水贻贝的南半球软体动物的多样性和进化关系。这些动物引起了生物学家的兴趣，因为它们广泛分布在南美洲，非洲，马达加斯加，印度和澳大利亚，因为它们的生命周期涉及寄生在鱼类身上的迷人幼虫阶段。最近的分析表明，以太类淡水贻贝彼此之间关系密切，这一点，加上它们在南部大陆的巨大地理范围，表明这些模式是古代大陆漂移的结果。这项研究将通过综合大量关于淡水贻贝的动物学信息来测试这些进化关系和地理过程的假设，这些信息被收藏在博物馆中，并记录在250多年的生物文献中。其结果将是一个完整的综合和重新分类的近200种ethereioidean淡水贻贝。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等现代传播手段（http：//clade.acnatsci.org/mussel）。虽然这些信息将对科学家和保护官员感兴趣，但它也将为教师、学生和所有有兴趣更好地了解他们的世界的公众提供服务。除了提供一个有趣的，重要的和濒危动物的新的科学视角，这项研究还将有助于通过实践研究经验来培养后起之秀的生物学家。

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.