NSF Postdoc Fellowship in Biology FY 2017: Exploring the evolutionary stability of larval type: a phylogenetic analysis of developmental patterns in extant and extinct sea biscuits

该研究金支持研究员的研究和培训，以创新的方式利用生物收藏。该项目将进一步加深我们对整个生物体中各种生命周期是如何产生和维持的知识。 海胆棘皮动物（海胆，沙元和海饼干）显示出各种各样的生命周期，一些物种产生的后代离开母亲作为少年，而其他物种产生的后代在发育成少年之前作为幼虫度过一年以上。这些发展差异对种群的联系和持久性有重要影响。 该项目将利用生物标本来研究棘皮动物的生命周期在整个化石记录中是如何变化的，发育变化的速度有多快，以及这些生命周期如何影响更广泛的生物模式，如物种范围和灭绝率。作为该项目的一部分，该研究员将与加州科学院的教育部门合作，吸引小学生。 该研究员将把有关海洋生命周期的信息添加到供当地教师在学校使用的课堂工具包中。 她还将参加学院的远程学习计划“与科学家交谈”，美国各地的学校可以参加电话会议。该项目将有助于本科生的培训，因为该研究员将指导REU学生。 此外，该项目将有助于博物馆档案的数字化。在这个项目中，研究员将使用遗传和形态学数据创建棘皮动物属Clypeaster（由海饼干组成）的遗传学。 她将测量现存和灭绝物种的形态特征，以确定每个物种的卵大小和幼虫类型。 通过将这些发育数据与发育基因相结合，该研究员将分析发育模式在该群体的整个历史中是如何演变的，发育类型有多稳定，以及发育类型的变化有多快。Clypeaster属提供了一个特殊和难得的机会，以测试许多核心Evo-Devo理论，由于现有物种的发展，其非常完整的化石记录，以及确定发育特征的能力的广泛文献。 为该项目创建的胚胎发育和形态学数据库将作为其他科学家的资源。 研究结果将发表在同行评审的期刊上，并在科学会议上分享。

The fellowship supports research and training of the fellow that will utilize biological collections in innovative ways. This project will further our knowledge of how the diverse life cycles seen throughout organisms are generated and maintained. The echinoid echinoderms (sea urchins, sand dollars, and sea biscuits) display a wide variety of life cycles with some species producing offspring that leave their mother as juveniles, while other species produce offspring which spend over a year as a larva before developing into a juvenile. These developmental differences have important impacts on the connection and persistence of populations. This project will use biological collections to investigate how the life cycles of echinoderms have changed throughout the fossil record, how quickly developmental changes can arise, and how those life cycles affect broader biological patterns such as species ranges and rates of extinction. As part of this project, the fellow will partner with the education department at California Academy of Sciences to engage elementary school students. The fellow will add information about marine life cycles to classroom kits for local teachers to use in their schools. She will also participate in the Academy's distance learning program "Talk to a Scientist" which schools across the US can teleconference into. This project will contribute to undergraduate training, as the fellow will mentor REU students. Additionally this project will contribute to the digitization of museum archives. For this project, the fellow will create a phylogeny of the echinoderm genus Clypeaster (composed of the sea biscuits) using both genetic and morphological data. She will measure morphological features of extant and extinct species to determine the egg size and larval type of each species. By combining a phylogeny with these developmental data, the fellow will analyze how developmental patterns have evolved throughout the history of this group, how stable developmental type is, and how quickly changes in developmental type can arise. The genus Clypeaster provides an exceptional and rare opportunity to test many core Evo-Devo theories due to the extensive literature on the development of extant species, its remarkably complete fossil record, and the ability to determine developmental traits from fossilized adults. The phylogeny and morphological database created for this project will serve as a resource for other scientists. Results from the studies will be published in peer-reviewed journals and shared at scientific meetings.