Biogeography and Phylogeny of the Freshwater Crabs Based on Molecular and Morphological Evidence

淡水蟹提出了许多有趣的进化和生物地理学问题。它们是种类最多的蟹类之一，但我们对它们的系统分类学和系统发育关系的了解严重有限。虽然是物种，但它们在形态、对淡水的依赖和不同寻常的生活史上都有相似之处。基于一些特征，淡水蟹一直被认为是单系的。然而，鉴于它们有趣的生物地理分布，这一观点受到了挑战。本研究将对淡水蟹进行迄今为止最全面的系统发育研究，利用形态学和分子数据对所有淡水蟹系及其假定的海洋亲缘进行研究。具体而言，我们建议利用形态学和分子线粒体和核DNA数据，分别建立淡水和咸海蟹的独立系统发育系统，并利用这些结果来检验这两个类群的单系性，估计淡水蟹的起源时间，并对现有的淡水蟹高阶分类进行评价和修正。

Freshwater crabs pose a number of interesting evolutionary and biogeographic questions. They represent one of the most speciose groups of crabs, but our understanding of their systematics and phylogenetic relationships is severely limited. Although speciose, they are similar in their morphology, their dependence on freshwater, and their unusual life history. Based on a few characteristics, freshwater crabs have long been assumed to be monophyletic. This view has been challenged, however, in light of their intriguing biogeographical distribution. This study will undertake the most comprehensive phylogenetic study of freshwater crabs to date by using both morphological and molecular data for all freshwater lineages and their putative marine relatives. Specifically, we propose to use morphological and molecular mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data to establish independently phylogenies for both freshwater and eubrachyuran marine crabs, to use these results to test monophyly of the groups, to estimate the time of origin of freshwater crabs, and to evaluate and revise the existing higher order classification of freshwater crabs.