Integrating fossils and genomes to unravel the pattern of mammalian diversification through time.

利用基因组数据的系统发育方法已经成功地用于构建和研究现存哺乳动物物种之间的进化关系。然而，由于方法的限制，形态数据到目前为止还没有得到充分利用，这已经成为在试图估计这一群体进化史上的分化和灭绝模式时的一个限制因素。该项目旨在利用贝叶斯统计方法的最新进展，通过结合形态(来自现存物种和灭绝物种)和基因组数据(来自现存物种)来重建物种水平的哺乳动物系统发育，并使用重建的系统发育图来揭开哺乳动物随时间进化的模式。形态数据将主要来自从以前的工作和在线数据库获得的CT扫描数据，还将辅之以在项目过程中采集的博物馆标本的新扫描。基因组数据将从在线数据库中获得。所提出的方法的优点是，化石物种将被用作系统发育重建的过时提示，与以前的研究相比，这将与现有哺乳动物的广泛系统基因组样本一起提供更多关于早期哺乳动物进化的信息。然后，这一重建的系统发育可用于估计进化速度和分化时间，以便将关键的进化事件置于其地质/环境背景下，使我们能够解决一些重要问题，如哺乳动物多样性和灭绝与古气候的关系，或理解这一群体形态创新的遗传基础。这反过来可以为当前的气候危机以及它可能如何影响现代哺乳动物和其他脊椎动物的多样性和进化模式提供有用的推断。

Phylogenetic methods using genomic data have been used with great success to construct and study the evolutionary relationships between extant mammal species. However, due to methodological constraints, morphological data has so far been underutilised and this has become a limiting factor when trying to estimate patterns of divergence and extinction in the evolutionary history of this group. The proposed project aims to use recent advances in Bayesian statistical methods to reconstruct a species-level mammal phylogeny by combining morphology (from extant and extinct species) and genomic data (from extant species) and use the reconstructed phylogeny to unravel patterns of mammal evolution through time. Morphological data will come mainly from CT scan data obtained from previous work and online databases, which will also be supplemented with new scans from museum specimens taken over the course of the project. Genomic data will be obtained from online databases. The advantage of the proposed methodology is that fossil species will be used as dated tips in the phylogenetic reconstruction, which, together with extensive phylogenomic sampling from extant mammals, would provide more information about early mammalian evolution compared to previous studies. This reconstructed phylogeny can then be used to estimate rates of evolution and divergence times in order to place key evolutionary events in their geological/environmental context, allowing us to address a number of important questions, such as the relationship of mammal diversification and extinction to palaeoclimate or to understand the genetic basis of morphological innovation in this group. This could in turn provide useful inferences for the current climate crisis and how it may affect patterns of diversity and evolution in modern mammals and other vertebrates.