PRF/M: Evolutionary Morphology of Gastropod Larval Development

腹足类生物学中的三个问题是 变态和形态多样性的研究。 第一、 壳体改型的发展及其功能意义 许多海洋腹足类物种在南极洲时， 将研究面盘幼虫阶段（sinusigeral幼虫形式）。 第二，异常机械变形的发育原因 出现在一些原始海洋腹足动物的幼虫壳中 物种需要调查。 第三个主题涉及 描述和评估连续事件的多样性 和时间参与发展的轮状腹足类， 将数据转换为字符和字符的特定目标 用于系统发育分析的状态;这些描述符应该是 与更传统的形态特征结合使用。 %%% 这项工作将告知持续存在和未解决的问题， 软体动物的进化形态学 前两个问题 在功能和进化的解释领域， 幼虫壳的特征及其与成虫的关系 外壳，解决方案需要开发信息 以比较系统的方式收集。 这两个问题都是 与在活的和化石的贝壳中观察到的现象有关 腹足类 解决第三个问题将培养一个 一致的语言的字符和字符的国家， 将发育生物学的丰富词汇转化为 系统学和系统发育分析语言。

Three problems in gastropod biology serve as the focus for this research on metamorphosis and morphological diversity. First, development and functional significance of modifications to shell apertures of many marine gastropod species when in the planktic veliger larval stage (the sinusigeral larval form) will be studied. Second, developmental causes of an unusual mechanical deformation occurring in larval shells of some primitive marine gastropod species are to be investigated. A third topic relates to characterizing and evaluating the diversity of sequential events and timing involved in development of trochoidean gastropods, with the specific goal of translating data into characters and character states useful for phylogenetic analysis; such descriptors should be useful in tandem with more traditional morphological characters. %%% This work will inform persistent and unresolved problems of molluscan evolutionary morphology. The first two problems reside in the realm of functional and evolutionary interpretation of features of the larval shell and its relationship to the adult shell, for which solutions require developmental information gathered in a comparative systematic way. Both questions are relevant to phenomena observable in shells of living and fossil gastropods. Addressing the third problem would cultivate a consistent language of characters and character states that translate the rich vocabulary of developmental biology into a language for systematics and phylogenetic analysis.