Synthetic Approaches Toward Crocodylian Phylogeny

这项研究将对一组脊椎动物从起源到现在的关系和进化历史进行最全面的分析。新的形态特征，新的化石，以及来自所有鳄鱼目现存物种的细胞核和线粒体的DNA序列将有助于确定大约150个已知鳄鱼物种（包括化石）是如何相关的，并解决目前有争议甚至未知的关系。这些结果还将有助于比较分子和解剖进化的模式，并探索分子和化石有时支持不同时间估计的原因，提供可应用于其他生物群体的结果。它们也将对鳄鱼的保护工作至关重要，所有鳄鱼都受到威胁或濒临灭绝。这个项目是真正的跨学科，整合了两位知名鳄鱼研究人员（一位形态学家/古生物学家和一位分子进化生物学家）的专业知识。这种方法将扩展到研究生和本科教育，学生在各自的项目之间进行交换，以便可以亲身体验研究的不同方面。这些项目将从地球科学和生命科学领域培养出一批全面发展、训练有素的年轻科学家。

This research will generate the most comprehensive analysis of relationships and evolutionary history ever attempted for a group of vertebrates from its origins to the present. New morphological characters, new fossils, and DNA sequences from both the nucleus and mitochondria for all living species in the order Crocodylia will help to determine how the approximately 150 known crocodylian species (including fossils) are related and resolve relationships that are currently controversial or even unknown. These results will also help to compare patterns of molecular and anatomical evolution and explore the reasons molecules and fossils sometimes support different timing estimates, providing results that can be applied to other groups of organisms. They will also be critical to conservation efforts for crocodylians, all of which are threatened or endangered.This project is truly interdisciplinary, integrating expertise from two established crocodylian researchers (a morphologist/paleontologist and a molecular evolutionary biologist). This approach will extend to both graduate and undergraduate education, with students being exchanged between the respective programs so that different aspects of the research can be experienced first hand. These programs will produce a crop of well-rounded, well-trained young scientists from both the earth and life sciences.