CAREER: Integrating Genomic, Paleoclimatic, and Morphological Approaches to Unravel the Evolutionary History of Fossil and Extant Marine Fishes Over Time

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。要了解地球上生命的进化史，就需要对现存物种和化石物种进行全面的记录。例如，我们对古代事件对形态多样性影响的理解受到化石、古气候数据层的限制，以及对基因组大小随时间进化的理解。为了解决这一知识缺口，该项目将利用现存和化石河豚鱼、箱鱼、海洋太阳鱼及其盟友（四齿形目）分析形态进化，以及其与古气候、体型和基因组大小变化的联系。通过研究古代气候事件、形态进化速率以及表型和分子水平上的趋同之间复杂的相互作用，该项目将对这一类群的多样化速度和模式进行新的比较综合，并从更广泛的意义上推进我们对脊椎动物多样化的理解。一项综合教育计划通过培训下一代进化生物学家来扩大这项研究的影响。教育活动包括在俄克拉何马大学和波多黎各大学举办研讨会，举办博物馆展览，为本科生、研究生和博士后研究人员提供研究培训。本项目以形态多样性的综合宏观进化研究为中心，利用全基因组测序数据，结合形态学、古气候和古生物学数据的最新研究方法，阐明主要是海洋鱼类分支（四齿形）表型多样化的驱动因素。该项目将解决三个主要问题：(i)古代气候事件是否与形态进化速度的增加有关？（ii）基因组大小的进化是否与更高的形态和谱系多样化率相关？（iii）体型的表型趋同是否与分子趋同模式相关？研究结果将为了解其他海洋生物如何进化和适应气候突变建立新的研究方向。它们还将增强我们对宏观进化背景下使用全基因组测序和形态数据的表型和基因型可预测性之间关系的理解，并通过基于各种丰富数据层的新颖比较分析创造探索进化的新方法。该提案的教育计划包括一个新的鱼类学课程，编码夏季研讨会，以及各种博物馆展览和推广活动，将鱼类作为一个了解形态进化的优秀系统。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2). Understanding the evolutionary history of life on earth requires comprehensive documentation of both living and fossil species. For example, our understanding of the effects of ancient events on morphological diversity is stymied by the limited inclusion of fossils, paleoclimatic data layers, and understanding of genome size evolution over time. To address this knowledge gap, this project will analyze morphological evolution using extant and fossil pufferfishes, boxfishes, ocean sunfishes, and allies (Order Tetraodontiformes), as well as its links to changes in paleoclimate, body size, and genome size. By investigating the complex interplay between ancient climatic events, rates of morphological evolution, and convergence at the phenotypic and molecular levels, this project will yield a new comparative synthesis of the tempo and mode of diversification in this group and, more generally, advance our understanding of vertebrate diversification. An integrated education plan extends the impact of this research by training the next generation of evolutionary biologists. Educational activities include workshops at the University of Oklahoma and the University of Puerto Rico, the creation of museum exhibitions, and research training for undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral researchers. This project centers on an integrative macroevolutionary investigation of morphological diversity using whole-genome sequencing data coupled with state-of-the-art approaches for the study of morphological, paleoclimatic, and paleontological data to elucidate the drivers of phenotypic diversification in a mostly marine fish clade (tetraodontiforms). The project will address three main questions: (i) Are ancient climatic events associated with an increase in rates of morphological evolution? (ii) Is genome size evolution correlated with higher rates of morphological and lineage diversification? (iii) Is phenotypic convergence in body size correlated with patterns of molecular convergence? Results will establish new research directions for understanding how other marine groups have evolved and adapted to abrupt climatic changes. They will also enhance our understanding of the relationships between phenotypic and genotypic predictability using whole-genome sequencing and morphological data in a macroevolutionary context, and create new ways of exploring evolution through novel comparative analyses based on a variety of rich layers of data. The educational plan of this proposal includes a new ichthyology course, coding summer workshops, and a variety of museum exhibitions and outreach activities, presenting fishes as an excellent system to understand morphological evolution.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.