Establishing viviparid gastropods as Cenozoic continental environmental archive; with case studies on Oligocene SE-Asian initial icehouse weather, on climate variability during the Plio-Pleistocene transition in Central Asia, and on genetic and environmen

可以用来推断高分辨率、多年到季节内气候和天气信号的新生代古环境大陆记录很少，除了晚全新世的树枝气候学途径。我们已经发现，隔虫腹足类在研究过去的环境方面具有很高的潜力。物种生活在除南美洲和南极洲以外的所有大陆的河流和湖泊系统中。自始新世以来，该集团实现了强劲的多元化。尽管大多数新生代贝壳，特别是贝亚科贝壳具有特征，包括龙骨、肋骨和脊骨等特征，但分类和生态分配往往很困难，特别是由于缺乏早期个体发生贝壳数据和考虑(古)环境的明确形态分析。因此，早期的个体发育壳将被扫描电子显微镜详细记录，而晚期的个体发育壳将被三维分形几何学研究。环境对贝壳雕塑的影响将使用物理化学-形态计量学方法进行测试。一个特别的焦点(案例研究)将放在壳的可塑性与基因表达之间的联系上。隔虫类腹足动物相对较大，因此可以在一周甚至更短的时间内进行稳定同位素研究的菌核年代学亚采样。另外两个案例研究将涉及古气候模式：a)渐新世初期(季风？)冰库气候和气候条件：a)东南亚冰库气候和天气状况；b)中亚上更新世冰库向冰期过渡期间气候和天气模式的变化以及动物群的变化。

Cenozoic palaeo-environmental continental archives which can be used to infer high-resolution, multi-annual to intra-seasonal climate and weather signals are scarce, with some exception of Late Holocene dendroclimatological avenues. Viviparid gastropods have been identified by us to have a high potential to study past environments. Species inhabit fluvial and lacustrine systems of all continents except for South America and Antarctica. Since the Eocene the group has diversified strongly. Although most Cenozoic shells, particularly of the subfamily Bellamyinae, are characteristic, including features such as keels, ribs and spines, taxonomical and thus ecological assignment is often difficult, especially due to the lack of early ontogenetic shell data and unambiguous morphotype analyses considering (palaeo-) environmental settings. Thus early ontogenetic shells will be SEM-documented in detail and late ontogenetic shells will be studied by 3D-fractal-geometry. The influence of the environment on shell sculpture will be tested using a physicochemical-morphometric approach. A special focus (case study) will be put on relating shell plasticity with gene expression. Viviparid gastropods are comparatively large and thus allow sclerochronological sub-sampling for stable isotope studies in a resolution of a week or even less. Two further case studies will address palaeo-weather patterns: a) Oligocene initial (monsoonal?) icehouse climate and weather conditions in Southeast Asia and b) changing climate and weather patterns and faunal shifts during the Plio-Pleistocene icehouse to ice age transition in Central Asia.