Collaborative Research: Jaws and Backbone: Chondrichthyan Phylogeny and a Spine for the Vertebrate Tree of Life

软骨动物，或鲨鱼，射线和嵌合体，是流行文化中最著名的海洋动物之一，但在进化方面却鲜为人知。尽管是一个古老的群体，但令人惊讶的是，我们对导致它们目前多样性的模式和过程知之甚少--这种多样性正日益受到环境和渔业压力的威胁。该项目将对鲨鱼、溜冰鞋、射线和嵌合体的多样性进行分类，提供基于DNA序列比较的系谱，并提供基于CT扫描数据的三维虚拟骨骼数据库，以记录表征主要物种的所有物理变化。该项目将涉及技术的开发，这些技术将影响收集DNA序列的方式，以便在生物之间进行比较。这可能对以比较方法为基础的比较生物化学、生理学和医学等学科产生深远的好处。该项目的外展部分将利用鲨鱼的普遍吸引力，展示现代分子生物学和计算机可视化技术如何被应用于更好地了解世界日益受到威胁的生物多样性的演变。该项目是一个为期10年的努力的一部分，目的是将美国研究收藏的生物标本相关的科学信息数字化和动员起来。该项目的图像和数字化数据将整合到在线国家资源中，如可在http://digbiocol.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/digistratplanfinaldraft.pdf.获得的社区战略计划中所述

The Chondrichthyans, or sharks, rays and chimaeras, are some of the best known marine animals in popular culture but poorly known in terms of their evolution. Despite being an ancient group, we know surprisingly little about the patterns and processes that gave rise to their current diversity - a diversity that is increasingly under threat through environmental and fishing pressures. This project will catalog the diversity of sharks, skates, rays and chimaeras, provide a genealogy of relationships based on DNA sequence comparisons, and provide a data base of 3-D virtual skeletons based on CT scan data to document all of the physical variations that characterize the major lineages.The project will involve the development of technologies that will impact the way DNA sequences are collected for the purpose of comparison across organisms. This could have far reaching benefits for disciplines such as comparative biochemistry, physiology and medicine that are based on comparative approaches. The outreach component of the project will exploit the popular appeal of sharks to show how modern molecular biology and computer visualization techniques are being applied to better understand the evolution of the world's increasingly threatened biodiversity.This project is part of a 10-year effort to digitize and mobilize the scientific information associated with biological specimens held in U.S. research collections. The images and digitized data from this project will be integrated into the online national resource as outlined in the community strategic plan available at http://digbiocol.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/digistratplanfinaldraft.pdf.