Chameleon (Reptilia : Chamaeleonidae) Phylogeny, Biogeography and Continental Speciation in Madagascar

变色龙（爬虫纲：变色龙科）的系统发育、生物地理和大陆物种形成变色龙是马达加斯加和印度洋最引人注目的物种群之一，有近100种（包括本研究将要描述的新物种）。尽管这一热带类群表现出许多理想的特征，有助于理解岛屿之间和大陆内部的物种形成过程，但我们目前对物种关系缺乏强有力的了解。该项目将产生第一个基于分子DNA和形态数据的综合物种水平系统发育，再加上GIS和新开发的分布建模算法，有望提高我们对促进物种形成和生物多样性产生过程的认识。特别是，过去的古气候变化驱动物种形成的潜在作用将被研究。这个项目是第一个将现代物种的进化史与古气候变化结合起来的项目之一，其结果有望提高我们对大陆上产生新物种的过程的理解：这是一个在现代生物学中仍未解决的话题。本研究还整合了新的数据类型（遥感卫星数据、GIS环境层、物种分布模型和分子数据）来探索其他应用，包括加速新物种的发现，制定保护策略。并预测物种对未来潜在气候变化的反应。

Chameleon (Reptilia: Chamaeleonidae) phylogeny, biogeography, and continental speciation in MadagascarChameleons represent one of the most spectacular species groups in Madagascar and the Indian Ocean, with almost 100 species (including new species to be described by this study). Although this tropical group exhibits many desirable features for understanding processes of speciation between islands and within continents, we currently lack a robust understanding of species relationships. This project will produce the first comprehensive species-level phylogeny based on molecular DNA and morphological data, which coupled with GIS and newly developed distribution modeling algorithms, is expected to advance our knowledge of processes that promote speciation and the generation of biodiversity. In particular, the potential role of past paleo-climatic change driving speciation is to be studied. This project is one of the first to integrate evolutionary histories of modern species with paleo-climatic change, and results are expected to improve our understanding of the processes that produce new species on continents: a topic still very much unresolved in modern biology. This study also integrates new types of data (remotely sensed satellite data, GIS environmental layers, species distribution models, and molecular data) to explore other applications including accelerating the discovery of new species, developing conservation strategies. and predicting species responses to potential future climate change.