Assessing the long-term stability of adaptive radiations using the fossil record

拟议的研究采用跨学科的方法来研究变化环境中的多样化和灭绝过程。适应性辐射是生物多样化以履行各种生态角色的过程，是我们星球上许多壮观生态群落的产生原因。但是，由适应性辐射产生的生态群落是否能长期存在，以及它们在多大程度上被环境变化所重塑，仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。该项目将在一个模型系统-加勒比的阿诺利斯蜥蜴-中重建形态多样性，以评估适应性辐射所产生的形态多样性的寿命。这项研究桥接了生物科学和地球科学，提供了一个跨学科的平台，以培养多样化的学生，包括来自代表性不足的背景的本科生和正在接受培训成为K-12 STEM教师的学生。此外，该项目生成的头骨三维模型将用于开发新的教育模块，介绍形态进化和多样性随时间的变化，这些模块将部署在本科和高中课堂上。拟议的研究在四个主要领域提供了重要信息：（1）描述物种如何在适应性辐射中划分形态空间;（2）确定生态群落是否在地质时间尺度上持续存在;（3）确定地质时间尺度上表型变化的性质;（4）确定表型多样性的变化是否与环境变化相关。这些问题将通过建立一个全面的，高分辨率的X射线色谱数据集的现存Anolis物种从酒精保存的博物馆标本和整合这些数据与Anolis化石标本从整个大安的列斯群岛来解决。该研究与进化生物学家、生态学家、古生物学家有关，对确定生态群落在未来可能发生的变化特别有指导意义。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

The proposed research uses an interdisciplinary approach to study diversification and extinction processes in changing environments. Adaptive radiation, the process whereby organisms diversify to fulfill a variety of ecological roles, is responsible for producing many of the spectacular ecological communities on our planet. But whether the ecological communities generated from adaptive radiations persist over long timescales–and the extent to which they are reshaped by environmental change–remains an unresolved question. This project will reconstruct morphological diversity in a model system–the Anolis lizards of the Caribbean–to evaluate the longevity of morphological diversity generated by adaptive radiations. This research bridges the biological sciences and the geosciences, providing an interdisciplinary platform to train a diverse set of students, including undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds and students who are training to become K-12 STEM teachers. Additionally, 3 dimensional models of skulls generated by this project will be used to develop new educational modules on morphological evolution and diversity change through time that will be deployed in undergraduate and high school classrooms. The proposed research provides significant information in four main areas: (1) characterizing how species partition morphospace in an adaptive radiation; (2) establishing whether ecological communities persist over geologic timescales; (3) identifying the nature of phenotypic change over geological timescales; and (4) determining if shifts in phenotypic diversity are correlated to environmental changes. These issues will be addressed through the creation of a comprehensive, high-resolution X-ray chromatography dataset of extant Anolis species from alcohol-preserved museum specimens and integration of those data with Anolis fossil specimens from throughout the Greater Antilles. The research is relevant to evolutionary biologists, ecologists, paleontologists, and will be particularly instructive in identifying how ecological communities might change in the future.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.