OPUS: Synthesizing 30 years of research on 200 million years of evolutionary history on the "higher" flies (Brachyceran Diptera)

本项目将综合30多年来对“高等”蝇类的进化历史和分类的研究，包括强盗蝇、蜂蝇、花蝇、果蝇、腐肉蝇、蝇蛆和采采蝇，其中许多具有重要的经济和生态意义。它将整合令人兴奋的新化石发现以及解剖学和新的基因组数据。这些苍蝇的化石记录的一个独特之处在于，许多种类繁多的高等苍蝇在距今1700万年至1.3亿年的树脂化石（琥珀）中被保真地保存了下来。这极大地提高了测量进化变化的时间和数量的准确性。有了这些数据，这个项目可以解决高级果蝇的多样性是因为它们的物种形成速度太快，还是因为它们的灭绝率很低，或者两者兼而有之。它还可以解决高级果蝇是否受到6600万年前发生的大规模灭绝的影响，当时大多数恐龙都灭绝了，以及在过去6600万年中代表所有生命中最大辐射的最大高级果蝇群体是否也是进化最快的。除了这些广泛的问题，这项研究还将基于琥珀中的几百个标本来解决果蝇（Drosophila）的进化速度。由于果蝇是遗传和基因组研究的模型系统，这将为基因组学和进化研究提供独特的背景。该项目还将为高中生提供研究培训和经验，并开发一个关于苍蝇进化的博物馆展览。本项目将通过分析、研究和解释30多年来积累的“高等”蝇（双翅目短翼目）的系统发育、生物地理和一般进化数据，构建一个全面的进化框架。它将建立在首席研究员的经验基础上，从数百个样本活物种的解剖，数千个活物种和化石物种的测量和数字图像，以及对70多个化石物种的描述，首先组装一个来自526个分类群的592个形态学特征的数据矩阵，包括化石和现存物种。这些形态学和分子数据将用于编写一本关于短肢动物的形态学、化石记录和系统发育的专著，重点是中生代。该项目还将对琥珀中保存的多种新果蝇科（4200万至1700万年前）进行详细的描述性研究，并发表两篇论文，对较低腕足目和棘科，特别是果蝇的谱系分化时间进行形态学和基因组数据分析。拓展活动将包括在琥珀实验室指导高中生实习生，并在美国自然历史博物馆举办巡回展览或永久性展览“苍蝇”。

This project will synthesize more than 30 years of research on the evolutionary history and classification of the "higher" flies, including robber flies, bee flies, flower flies, fruit flies, carrion flies, bot flies, and tsetse flies, many of which are economically and ecologically important. It will integrate exciting new fossil discoveries as well as anatomical and new genomic data. A unique feature of the fossil record for these flies is that many diverse higher flies are preserved with life-like fidelity in fossilized resin (amber) that is from 17 to 130 million years old. This profoundly enhances the accuracy with which the timing and amount of evolutionary change can be measured. With these data, this project can address whether higher flies are diverse because their speciation is so rapid, or because their extinction rate is low, or both. It also can address whether higher flies were affected by mass extinctions that occurred 66 million years ago, when most dinosaurs became extinct, and whether the largest group of higher flies, which represents the largest radiation of all life in the past 66 million years, also are the fastest evolving. Besides these broad questions, this study will also address the rate of evolution of fruit flies (Drosophila), based on several hundred specimens in amber. Since fruit flies are a model system for genetic and genomic research, this will provide a unique context for research in genomics and evolution. The project also will provide research training and experience for high school students and develop a museum exhibit on the evolution of flies. This project will construct a comprehensive evolutionary framework through the analysis, study, and interpretation of over 30 years of accumulated data on the phylogeny, biogeography, and general evolution of the "higher" flies (Brachyceran Diptera). It will build upon the principal investigator's experience from hundreds dissections of exemplar living species, thousands of measurements and digital images of living and fossil species, and writing descriptions for over 70 fossil species to first assemble a data matrix of 592 morphological characters from 526 taxa, including both fossil and extant species. This morphological and molecular data will be used to compile a monograph on the morphology, fossil record, and phylogeny of the Brachycera, emphasizing the Mesozoic Era. This project also will produce a detailed descriptive study on diverse new Drosophilidae preserved in amber (42-17 million years ago) and two papers that address divergence times of lineages in lower Brachycera and in the Ephydroidea, especially Drosophila, analyzed with morphological and genomic data. Outreach will include mentoring high school student interns in the amber laboratory and developing a traveling or permanent exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, "Flies."