Collaborative Research: Tempo and Mode of Diversification In Vertebrates

长期以来，生物学家一直在寻找地球上某些物种比其他物种多样性大得多的原因。该项目将研究在整个生命历史中，不同脊椎动物群体中新物种形成和变化的方式。新的统计方法将被开发出来，以测量有颌脊椎动物（包括鱼类、哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物和两栖动物在内的一大群动物）的物种形成、灭绝和特征变化的速率。利用从美国国家科学基金会“组装生命之树”项目中获得的新信息，该项目将确定具有异常高多样性的群体，并测试对这些“进化爆炸”的潜在解释。该项目将调查影响过去5亿年脊椎动物历史进化变化的力量。在这种尺度上描述进化将使我们对生命有更广泛的了解，并将引起许多科学领域的极大兴趣。一些教育外展活动将利用这笔赠款进行，包括与当地科学中心的互动，区域公立学校的参与，以及为来自世界各地的研究生协调讲习班。

Biologists have long sought explanations for why some groups of species on Earth are so much more diverse than others. This project will study the way that new species have formed and changed across different vertebrate groups throughout the history of life. New statistical methods will be developed to measure rates of speciation, extinction, and trait change across the jawed vertebrates, a large group of animals that includes fishes, mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Using new information obtained from NSF's Assembling the Tree of Life program, the project will identify groups with unusually high diversity and test potential explanations for these "evolutionary explosions."This project will investigate the forces influencing evolutionary change over the past 500 million years of vertebrate history. Describing evolution at this scale will give us a broader understanding of life over time in general, and will be of great interest to many scientific fields. A number of educational outreach activities will be conducted with this grant, including interactions with a local science center, involvement of regional public schools, and coordination of a workshop for graduate students from around the world.