Collaborative Research: Tempo and Mode of Diversification In Vertebrates

生物学家长期以来一直在寻找解释，为什么地球上的一些物种群体比其他物种更加多样化。该项目将研究新物种在整个生命历史中在不同脊椎动物群体中形成和变化的方式。将开发新的统计方法来测量有颌脊椎动物的物种形成、灭绝和性状变化的速度，有颌脊椎动物是一大类动物，包括鱼类、哺乳动物、鸟类、爬行动物和两栖动物。利用从NSF的组装生命之树计划中获得的新信息，该项目将确定具有异常高多样性的群体，并测试这些“进化爆炸”的潜在解释。“这个项目将调查在过去5亿年的脊椎动物历史中影响进化变化的力量。在这个尺度上描述进化将使我们对生命随时间的变化有更广泛的理解，并将对许多科学领域产生极大的兴趣。将利用这笔赠款开展一些教育推广活动，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举办研讨会的协调。

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.