Phylogeny of Millipedes (Diplopoda) using Anatomical, Fossil and Molecular Evidence

作者声明：Heather M.WilsonDr.马里兰大学的希瑟·M·威尔逊、杰罗姆·C·雷杰和杰弗里·W·舒尔茨获得了研究千足纲(双足纲)进化的资助。千足虫是最多样化的动物群体之一，有8000多个物种。它们是陆地生态系统的重要组成部分，而且似乎已经存在了4亿多年。尽管如此，千足虫在地球生活史中的作用还没有被很好地理解。这里详细介绍的项目将通过对肌肉解剖、化石形态和DNA序列的广泛原始分析来解决千足目的进化关系(系统发育)。该项目有四个主要目标：(1)调查骨骼肌；(2)研究化石物种的骨骼解剖学；(3)比较编码三种核蛋白编码基因(伸长因子-1a、RNA聚合酶II和伸长因子-2)的DNA序列；(4)单独和联合使用这些数据来推断千足类及其近亲的系统发育(系统树)。这项工作非同寻常地是跨学科的，因为它代表了古生物学、比较解剖学和分子遗传学专家的合作。千足类系统发育的这种综合方法保证了对一大群重要生物体的进化生物学的实质性洞察，并将产生并允许整合和分析三种非常不同类型的数据来解决单一问题。

DEB-0075605Heather M. WilsonDrs. Heather M. Wilson, Jerome C. Regier and Jeffrey W. Schultz of the University of Maryland have been awarded a grant to study the evolution of millipedes (Class Diplopoda). The millipedes are one of the most diverse groups of animals, with more than 8,000 species. They are important components of terrestrial ecosystems and appear to have been so for over 400 million years. Nonetheless, the role of millipedes in the life history of our planet is not well understood. The project detailed here will resolve the evolutionary relationships (phylogeny) of the millipede orders through extensive original analyses of muscular anatomy, fossil morphology and DNA sequences. This project has four main objectives: (1) to survey the skeletal muscles; (2) to examine the skeletal anatomy of fossilized species; (3) to comparatively sequence the DNA coding for three nuclear protein-encoding genes (elongation factor-1a, RNA polymerase II and elongation factor-2); (4) to use these data, separately and in combination, to infer the phylogeny (family tree) of millipedes and their relatives. This work is unusually interdisciplinary in that it represents a collaboration of specialists in paleontology, comparative anatomy and molecular genetics. This integrative approach to millipede phylogeny promises substantial insights into the evolutionary biology of a large, important group of organisms and will produce and permit the integration and analysis of data of three very different types to address a single question.