Dissertation Research: Phylogeny of the Aeluroid Carnivora: A Combined Evidence Approach

该项目评估形态特化如何影响多样性和形态随时间的变化。到目前为止的研究表明，牙科/饮食专家(超级食肉动物)的分支比他们的非专门亲属表现出更少的形态多样性。此外，随着谱系从通才进化为专家，表型的变化似乎是不可逆转的，并可能影响分类群随后对不断变化的条件做出反应的能力。然而，为了更好地了解超级食肉动物是如何进化的，需要一个全面的食肉动物系统学，包括化石和最近的形式。这样的系统发育，结合了形态和分子数据，将使人们能够详细研究数百万年来特征的变化。这个项目在生态学和进化生物学方面具有深远的影响。古生物学家和新生物学家都对专门化的宏观进化效应感兴趣，而新的方法论方法可以应用于许多额外的生物学问题。这项研究中产生的详细的系统发育将对任何对食肉动物特征变化感兴趣的人有用，而且由于专门化可能会影响表型进化，这项工作对保护生物学家和比较生态地貌学家特别相关。最后，合作者是一名有孩子的女研究生，有机会在许多非传统场所回答有关生物研究的问题。

This project evaluates how morphological specialization affects diversity and morphological change over time. Research to date has shown that clades of dental/dietary specialists (hypercarnivores) exhibit less morphological diversity than their non-specialized relatives. Furthermore, phenotypic change as lineages evolve from generalists into specialists appears irreversible, and may affect a taxon's subsequent ability to respond to changing conditions. To best understand how hypercarnivory evolves, however, a comprehensive phylogeny of the aeluroid Carnivora, including both fossil and recent forms, is needed. Such a phylogeny, incorporating morphological and molecular data, will permit detailed study of character change over millions of years.This project has far-reaching impacts in ecology and evolutionary biology. Both paleontologists and neontologists have interest in the macroevolutionary effects of specialization, while the novel methodological approaches can be applied to many additional biological questions. The detailed phylogeny produced in this research will be useful to anyone interested in character change in Carnivora, and, since specialization may affect phenotypic evolution, this work is especially relevant to conservation biologists and comparative ecomorphologists. Lastly, the co-PI is a female graduate student with children, with opportunities to address questions about biological research in many non-traditional venues.