OPUS: Phenotypic Evolution, a Synthesis

该项目的目标是在表型进化领域产生一本书长度的综合研究结果。该领域关注动植物的体型、形状、颜色、行为和其他可观察特征的进化。综合将包括理论结果以及观察和实验结果。将总结的观测结果范围从当代种群几代人的进化变化到化石记录中数亿年的发展趋势。本书面临的挑战是，如何用自然过程在几代人的时间尺度上（例如，遗传、选择、人口规模）来解释如此多样的时间尺度上的进化。大多数进化生物学家同意这样的解释应该是可能的，但在细节上存在分歧。这种综合的意义在于，它将把最近发展起来的理论模型与自然界的进化观察结合起来。这种综合是基于一个前提，即可以使用过去30年来发展起来的强大模型来理解潜在的进化过程。尽管这些模型很强大，但由于它们的数学性质，它们并没有被广泛使用——甚至被进化生物学家使用。因此，这个项目的一个主要目标是使这些现代模型能够被广泛的受众使用，包括研究人员、大学生，甚至高中生。可访问性将通过使用计算机动画和模拟来说明基本概念和理论结果来实现。

The goal of this project is to produce a book-length synthesis of findings in the field of phenotypic evolution. This field is concerned with the evolution of body size, shape, coloration, behavior and other observable characteristics of plants and animals. The synthesis will include theoretical results as well as observational and experimental findings. The observational results that will be summarized range from evolutionary change over a few generations in contemporary populations to trends that occur in the fossil record over hundreds of millions of years. The challenge faced by this book is to explain evolution over such diverse timescales in terms of natural processes that operate on a timescale of a few generations (e.g., inheritance, selection, population size). Most evolutionary biologists agree that such an explanation should be possible, while disagreeing about the details. The significance of this synthesis is that it will integrate recently developed theoretical models with observations of evolution in nature. The synthesis is based on the premise that processes underlying evolution can be understood using powerful models that have been developed over the last 30 years. Despite their power, these models are not widely used - even by evolutionary biologists - because of their mathematical nature. Consequently, a major aim of this project is to make these modern models accessible to a wide audience that will include researchers, college students, and even high school students. Accessibility will be achieved by using computer animations and simulations to illustrate both essential concepts and theoretical results.