The evolution of mammalian developmental patterns in deep time

为什么有些有袋类动物在形态上比其他动物更多样化？在发育过程中发生的模式和过程塑造了成年的变异性，但这些在有袋动物中仍然知之甚少。这极大地限制了对有袋动物多样性如何进化的理解。该项目旨在使用新的分析方法提供关于有袋动物如何生长以及这些模式如何随时间演变的第一个经验数据。在这样做的过程中，它将产生基本的洞察力，为什么澳大利亚的有袋动物是如此多样化，以及形态特征如何在发展过程中相互作用，以塑造这种多样性;这方面的知识是了解形态多样性是如何产生的，是什么决定了物种如何进化的关键。

Why are some groups of marsupials more morphologically diverse than others? The patterns and processes occurring over development shape adult variability, and yet these remain poorly understood and unknown across marsupials. This significantly limits understanding of how marsupial diversity has evolved. This project aims to use novel analytical methods to provide the first empirical data on how marsupials grow, and how those patterns have evolved over time. In doing so it will yield fundamental insight into why Australia's marsupials are so diverse, and how morphological traits interact over development to shape this diversity; this knowledge is key to understanding how morphological diversity is generated and what determines how species evolve.