ROA: Morphometric and Phylogenetic Investigations of the Paleozoic Order Cryptostomata (Bryozoa: Stenolaemata)

隐口苔藓虫是大量存在于 在古生代的海洋中，他们留下了一个 在那个时代石灰岩中有重要化石记录。 丹尼尔博士 布莱克建议使用最先进的分析方法 形状和形状变化的研究， 随着时间的推移而进化 微机图象分析 设备将被用来量化有机形状的水平， 个体生物和整个群落， 转化为增长模式。 此外，布莱克博士将是 第一次使用苔藓虫的二维图像 殖民地重建和操纵三维 结构，从中可以得出形态学的新细节。 这些新的形态测量数据类别将构成 系统的修订，并分析了演变 隐口门内的关系以及 古生代苔藓虫目。 拟议的研究将澄清我们对 灭绝的无脊椎动物的重要群体，并将产生更多的 一致和客观的基础上，更多的理论研究 进化和灭绝的最后阶段可以休息了。 所提出的方法将 开创新局面，将为系统和 苔藓虫化石的进化研究。

Cryptostome bryozoans were colonial organisms that abounded in the world's oceans during the Paleozoic Era, and they left a significant fossil record in limestones of that age. Dr. Daniel Blake proposes to use state-of-the-art approaches to the analysis of shape and shape change in a study of their diversity and evolution through time. Microcomputer-based image analysis equipment will be used to quantify organic shape at the level of individual organisms and whole colonies, allowing novel insight into patterns of growth. In addition, Dr. Blake will be the first to use series of two-dimensional images of bryozoan colonies to reconstruct and manipulate three-dimensional structures, from which new details of morphology can be drawn. These new classes of morphometric data will form the basis of systematic revisions, and an analysis of evolutionary relationships within the Cryptostomata and among the other Paleozoic orders of bryozoans. The proposed research will clarify our understanding of an important group of extinct invertebrates, and will produce a more consistent and objective basis on which more theoretical studies of evolution and extinction can rest. The proposed methods will break new ground, and will set a new standard for systematic and evolutionary studies of fossil bryozoans.