Collaborative Research: REVSYS: Revisionary Systematics of Cheirurid Trilobites

该项目涉及重建三叶虫化石主要群体（Cheiruridae 科）的进化史。研究人员将利用已发表的文献、现有的野外收藏、新的野外收藏和博物馆标本中的数据，对相关化石物种进行全球调查。进化历史将使用现代定量方法重建。有关关系的假设随后将应用于古生物学中的一系列重要问题，为诸如大规模灭绝的性质、生物地理学和物种形成速率等课题提供线索。了解进化关系是了解地球生命历史的基本要求，但现代定量方法并不总是应用于化石动物的研究。该项目试图通过使用系统发育分析来考虑一个多样化且重要的化石群体来解决这个问题。此外，这项研究有可能成为利用化石解决重大进化问题的模型。该项目将培训几名进化系统学学生，通过网站和巡回博物馆展览为公共和 K-12 教育提供服务，还将通过生成新数据并将这些数据链接到现有生物数据库来服务更广泛的学科。

This project involves reconstructing the evolutionary history of a major group of fossil trilobites, the family Cheiruridae. The investigators will conduct a global survey of relevant fossil species, using data from the published literature, existing field collections, new field collections, and museum specimens. Evolutionary history will be reconstructed using modern quantitative methods. Hypotheses about relationships will then be applied to a range of important questions in paleobiology, shedding light on subjects such as the nature of mass extinctions, biogeography, and rates of speciation. Knowledge of evolutionary relationships is a basic requirement for understanding the history of life on Earth, yet modern quantitative methods have not always been applied to the study of fossil animals. The project seeks to redress this by using phylogenetic analysis to consider a diverse and important fossil group; further, this study will potentially serve as a model for the use of fossils to address major evolutionary questions. The project will train several students in evolutionary systematics, will serve public and K-12 education via a website and traveling museum exhibit, and will also serve the broader discipline by generating new data and also linking these data to existing biological databases.