Collaborative Research: Paleozoic echinoderms as model systems for the study of evolutionary modes

古生代棘皮动物作为进化模式研究的模式系统揭示化石记录中的进化驱动因素对于理解生物如何占据新的形态、生态和地理空间至关重要。这些信息是从过去的地质气候扰动中收集到的，对于理解和预测进化将如何在今天的生物多样性和气候危机中发挥作用至关重要。研究小组将把重点放在古代棘皮动物、海洋无脊椎动物（如海星）上，这些动物在地球历史上遍布全球。这一群体的研究还远远不够，因此，对这一群体进行的分析将为动物对地球系统扰动的反应提供关键的见解。新的有机体形式通过发育时间的变化而出现，称为异时性。目前尚不清楚的是气候、生物地理和生态的变化是如何影响异时性变化的。本研究采用综合分析的方法，通过数亿年前发生的极端气候事件，解决生态、生物地理和异时性的变化，探索生物进化史和长期后果的各个方面。数据库、博物馆和文献数据将在系统发育框架内共同使用，以发展对已灭绝棘皮动物的进化动力学（即进化速率的变化、异时性、生物地理学、生态学）的理解。这项研究的主要优点是在系统发育背景下整合多个变量，以定量地了解地球上通过非生物变化的更广泛的进化模式。该项目将培训下一代博物馆馆长、教育工作者和研究人员，并提供有关棘皮动物的开放获取信息。培训将通过本科暑期博物馆研究技术讲习班进行。本项目研究的棘皮动物分支的开放获取信息将发表在《古代生命数字地图集》的古生物学开放获取教科书上。通过这个项目和以前的工作创造的棘皮动物资源将在维基项目上整理成一个中心枢纽，供当前和未来的棘皮动物古生物学研究人员使用。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。

Collaborative Research: Paleozoic echinoderms as model systems for the study of evolutionary modes Unraveling the drivers of evolution in the fossil record is critical for understanding how organisms occupy new morphologic, ecologic, and geographic spaces. This information, gleaned from the geologic past across climate perturbations, is vital for understanding and predicting how evolution will operate across the biodiversity and climate crises today. The research team will focus on groups of ancient echinoderms, marine invertebrates (e.g., sea stars) that were globally widespread through Earth’s history. This group is vastly understudied and, as such, analyses conducted on the group will provide critical insight into animal response to Earth systems perturbations. New organismal forms appear through shifts in developmental timing, called heterochrony. What is unclear is how shifts in climate, organism biogeography, and ecology affect heterochronic shifts. This research uses a holistic approach via multiple analyses, addressing changes in ecology, biogeography, and heterochrony through extreme climate events that occurred hundreds of millions of years ago, to explore aspects of organisms’ evolutionary history and long-term consequences.Database, museum, and literature data will be used jointly within phylogenetic frameworks to develop understanding of the evolutionary dynamics (i.e., changes in rates of evolution, heterochrony, biogeography, ecology) of extinct echinoderms. The chief merit of this research is the integration of multiple variables within a phylogenetic context to quantitatively understand broader patterns of evolution through abiotic change on Earth. This project will train the next generation of museum curators, educators, and researchers, and provide open-access information about echinoderms. Training will be conducted through undergraduate summer workshops on museum research techniques. Open access information about the echinoderm clades studied in this project will be published on the Digital Atlas of Ancient Life’s paleontology open access textbook. Echinoderm resources, created through this project and from previous works, will be collated on a WikiProject into one central hub for current and future echinoderm paleobiology researchers.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.