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

该奖学金支持将以创新方式利用生物收藏的研究员的研究和培训。这个项目将进一步加深我们对整个生物体中所见的不同生命周期是如何产生和维持的知识。棘皮类棘皮动物(海胆、沙鱼和海饼干)表现出各种各样的生活史，一些物种产生的后代在幼年时离开母亲，而另一些物种产生的后代作为幼虫花费一年多的时间才发育成幼虫。这些发展差异对人口的联系和持久性具有重要影响。这个项目将使用生物收藏来调查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，如物种范围和灭绝速度。作为这个项目的一部分，这位研究员将与加州科学院的教育部门合作，让小学生参与进来。该研究员将把有关海洋生命周期的信息添加到课堂工具包中，供当地教师在学校使用。她还将参加美国科学院的远程教育项目“与科学家对话”，全美的学校都可以参加该项目的电话会议。这个项目将有助于本科生的培训，因为该研究员将指导REU的学生。此外，该项目将有助于博物馆档案的数字化。在这个项目中，这位研究员将使用遗传和形态数据创建棘皮动物属Clypeaster(由海饼干组成)的系统发育。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。通过将发展史与这些发育数据相结合，这位研究员将分析这一群体历史上的发展模式是如何演变的，发展类型有多稳定，以及发展类型变化的速度有多快。由于关于现存物种发展的大量文献，它极其完整的化石记录，以及从化石中确定发育特征的能力，Clypeaster属提供了一个特殊而难得的机会来测试许多核心的Evo-Devo理论。为该项目创建的系统发育和形态数据库将为其他科学家提供资源。研究结果将发表在同行评议的期刊上，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.