Paleontology: Developmental Analysis of a Speciation Event in the Fossil Record Using the New Geometric Morphometric Methods

9901484NehmThe研究将建立无脊椎动物古生物学在进化发育综合中的作用，通过使用地质，古生物学，进化和发育数据来解决有关发育进化和物种形成的几个基本问题：1）个体发育（生长）如何在物种形成之前，期间和之后进化？ 2)个体发育模式和微结构组成在物种内和物种间有何不同？ 3)在个体发育过程中，形态和微结构特征的整合如何限制物种形成过程中潜在变化的方向？ 4)在这个谱系中，什么样的古生态学、沉积学和生物学变量对物种形成的持续时间、方向和克里思有影响？ 这些问题将使用一种新的形态分析技术（几何形态分析），被许多人认为是一个革命性的进步形态和发育分析。 这项技术还没有被无脊椎古生物学家广泛使用，尽管它在许多其他领域的进化研究中取得了成功。 通过化石记录中的物种形成，使用一种新的形态测量方法调查发展的演变，为无脊椎古生物学提供了一个机会，为进化发育生物学做出独特的贡献，并展示了几何形态测量分析在古生物学研究中的作用。

9901484NehmThe research will establish a role for invertebrate paleontology in the evolutionary developmental synthesis by employing geological, paleontological, evolutionary, and developmental data to address several fundamental questions about developmental evolution and speciation: 1) How does ontogeny (growth) evolve before, during, and after speciation? 2) How do ontogenetic patterns and microstructural composition differ within and between species? 3) How does the integration of morphological and microstructural features during ontogeny constrain the direction of potential change during speciation? 4) What paleoecological, sedimentalogical, and biological variables contribute to the duration, direction, and tempo of speciation in this lineage? These questions will be addresses using a new morphmetric analysis technique (geometric morphometric analysis) that is considered by many to be a revolutionary advance in morphological and developmental analysis. This technique has yet to be used extensively by invertebrate paleontologists, despite its success in many other fields of evolutionary inquiry. Investigating the evolution of development through speciation in the fossil record using a new morphometric approach provides an opportunity for invertebrate paleontology to contribute uniquely to evolutionary developmental biology and demonstrate the power of geometric morphometric analysis in paleontological research.