Collaborative Research: Phylogenetic and Functional Analyses of Fossil and Living Walruses (Pinnipedia: Odobenidae)

对海象化石（Odobenidae sensu Demere）的分类、系统发育和功能研究将集中在Emlong Collection（美国国家科学院，史密森学会）中保存非常完好和系统信息丰富的骨骼材料上。本研究的具体目标是：(1)记录中新世早期至上新世（1700万- 300万年前）的倒benids多样性；(2)评估这些对海象系统发育特别重要的新近纪倒benids的系统关系；(3)利用这一系统发育框架研究倒benids与相关鳍足动物（海豹和海狮）之间的摄食策略和运动模式的适应。

9419802 Archibald This taxonomic, phylogenetic and functional studies of fossil walruses (Odobenidae sensu Demere) will focus on exceptionally well preserved and systematically informative skeletal material from the Emlong Collection (USNM, Smithsonian Institution). Specific objectives of this study are: (1) to document obobenid diversity from the early Miocene through the Pliocene (17-3 million years ago), (2) to evaluate the systematic relationships of these Neogene odobenids that are especially critical to walrus phylogeny, and (3) to use this phylogenetic framework to investigate adaptation of feeding strategies and locomotor patterns among odobenids and related pinnipeds (seals and sea lions).