The Role of Morphological Integration in the Evolutionary History of Artiodactyla

这项研究的问题是，在个体的成长过程中，头骨的不同特征在多大程度上得到了协调(整合)，以及一个物种表现出的发育整合程度如何可能影响其进化潜力。有人争辩说，高水平的发育整合将促进进化变化，尽管方向有限，因为独立适应的角色会更少。这项研究旨在通过探索偶蹄目动物整个进化史中发育整合和多样化模式之间的关系，直接检验这一论点。偶蹄目动物，包括我们大多数重要的经济家养动物，是当今生活中最多样化的哺乳动物群体之一，它们的进化史涉及到广泛的多样化模式。将测量许多现存和灭绝的偶蹄龙物种的头骨形状和整合，从而能够比较不同物种和不同时间的发育整合水平。多样性将使用形态和分类指标进行量化。该项目的结果将对进化生物学的广泛研究产生影响，这些研究依赖于将独立的形态特征识别为生物变化的基本单位。这项拟议的研究也可能对保护生物学产生影响：了解物种融合与物种进化潜力之间的任何联系，可能有助于优先保护濒危物种。该项目还将涉及开发新的分析计算机软件和收集新的形态测量数据，所有这些数据都将存放在免费的在线档案中，以方便其他研究人员进行比较分析，并促进合作。

This study asks to what extent different features of the skull are coordinated (integrated) during the growth of individuals, and how the degree of developmental integration exhibited by a species may influence its potential to evolve. It has been argued that a high level of developmental integration would facilitate evolutionary change, albeit in limited directions, because there would be fewer characters going through adaptation independently. This study aims to test this argument directly, by exploring the relationships between developmental integration and diversification patterns throughout the evolutionary history of artiodactyls. Artiodactyls, which include most of our economically important domestic animals, are among the most diverse mammal groups living today, and their evolutionary history has involved a wide range of diversification patterns. Skull shape and integration will be measured for each of the many living and extinct artiodactyl species, thus permitting comparison of developmental integration levels across species and through time. Diversification will be quantified using both morphological and taxonomic indices.The results of this project will have implications for a wide spectrum of studies in evolutionary biology that rely on recognizing independent morphological characters as the basic units of biological change. The proposed study could have implications for conservation biology as well: an understanding of any association between integration and the evolutionary potential of species may help in prioritizing conservation efforts of endangered species. The project will also involve development of novel analytical computer software and collection of new morphometric data, all of which will be deposited in free online archives to facilitate comparable analyses by other researchers and promote collaborations.