Systematics, Biogeography and Evolutionary Radiations of the Cyphophthalmi (Arachnida, Opiliones)

Cyphophthalmi是蜘蛛目Opiliones（长腿爸爸）的一个亚目。它们起源古老，分布广泛，生活在未受干扰的温带至热带潮湿森林的落叶层中。除南极洲外，在所有大陆以及大多数大陆起源的岛屿，如新西兰、新喀里多尼亚、苏门答腊岛和马达加斯加，都发现了Cyphophthalmids。它们居住的许多地方都有资格成为生物多样性热点地区，这些地区的总面积仅占地球陆地面积的1.4%，并因其高度多样性而被建议采取优惠保护政策。由于cyphophthalmids的局部分布和有限的扩散能力，它们被选择作为研究大陆起源岛屿的进化辐射、生物地理学和保护生物学潜在问题的模型。要做到这一点，需要解决其物种之间的分类和进化关系。我们将使用扫描电子显微镜来研究环眼虫的形态，并将生成特征列表，以便用标准的系统发育算法进行分析。其他标本将用于遗传研究，以产生DNA序列数据，也用于系统发育分析。这两组信息（形态学和DNA）将用于提出群体成员的进化关系并建立分类。进化树也将有助于生物地理模式和地球历史的研究。进化分析将借助编写的软件在大型多处理器计算机集群上并行工作。需要在新西兰、南非、马达加斯加、热带西非和东南亚进行广泛的实地工作，以获得适合实验室工作的材料，并记录未描述的多样性。系统学、生物地理学和对进化辐射的研究有助于更好地理解自然界中观察到的模式。优化跨地理区域、枝发生和物种形成的多样性知识可能受益于模型系统的使用。Cyphophthalmi在进化生物学中作为一种新模式的潜在用途，已经推动了对该群体的高级系统分类学的双重研究，以及对其最壮观的适应性辐射之一的探索，即在新西兰经历的一次。该研究将开发一个新的模型系统，将系统发育和生物地理模式与爆炸辐射的进化研究结合起来，并将为未来的生物多样性估计和保护生物学研究奠定基础。将提供关于Cyphophthalmi的全球知识，并提供一个数据库，其中载有该群体所有大约180个物种的地理信息和插图。在此过程中，一名本科生和一名研究生将接受蛛形动物进化生物学的全面培训。因此，研究项目的价值既具有科学价值，又具有社会价值。

Cyphophthalmi constitutes a suborder of the arachnid order Opiliones (daddy-long-legs). Of ancient origin and widespread distribution, they live in the leaf litter of undisturbed temperate to tropical humid forests. Cyphophthalmids have been found in all continents, except Antarctica, and in most islands of continental origin, such as New Zealand, New Caledonia, Sumatra, and Madagascar. Many of the places they inhabit qualify as biodiversity hotspots, areas collectively comprising only 1.4% of the land surface area of the Earth and recommended for preferential conservation policies for having high diversity. Due to their localized distribution and scant dispersal ability, cyphophthalmids have been chosen as a model to study evolutionary radiations in islands of continental origin, biogeography, and potential issues of conservation biology. To do so, the taxonomy and evolutionary relationships among its species need to be worked out. We will use scanning electron microscopy to study the morphology of the cyphophthalmids and will generate lists of characters to be analyzed with standard phylogenetic algorithms. Other specimens will be used for genetic studies in order to generate DNA sequence data also to be analyzed phylogenetically. Both sets of information (morphology and DNA) will be used to propose the evolutionary relationships of the members of the group and to establish a classification. The evolutionary trees will also aid studies of biogeographic patterns and earth history. Evolutionary analyses will be aided with the use of software written to work in parallel on a large multiprocessor computer cluster. Extensive field work in New Zealand, South Africa, Madagascar, tropical West Africa and southeast Asia is required to obtain material suitable for laboratory work and to document undescribed diversity. Systematics, biogeography, and the study of evolutionary radiations have contributed to a better understanding of the patterns observed in nature. Optimizing the knowledge of diversity across geographic areas, cladogenesis, and speciation may benefit from the use of model systems. The potential use of Cyphophthalmi as a new model in evolutionary biology has driven a dual study of the higher systematics of the group and the exploration of one of their most spectacular adaptive radiations, the one undergone in New Zealand. The research will develop a new model system to integrate phylogenetic and biogeographic patterns with evolutionary studies of explosive radiations, and will form the basis for future studies on biodiversity estimates and conservation biology. Global knowledge of the Cyphophthalmi, with a database containing geographical information and illustrations for all the estimated 180 species of the group, will be made available. During the process, one undergraduate and one graduate student will be fully trained in arachnid evolutionary biology. The value of the research project thus has both scientific and social interests.