Doctoral Dissertation: Integrating coalescent into the hypothesis testing of Neotropical diversification: spiny-rats (Echimyidae: Proechimys)

新热带低地拥有地球上最丰富的动物群，人们提出了几个历史假说来解释当今的生物多样性水平。支持这些假设的基于分子的研究通常是基于定性分析，这些分析显示了物种在地理背景下的谱系关系。这种方法可能会产生误导，因为这种解释没有充分考虑到物种内部固有的遗传变异。最近，基于严格统计框架的推论明确地考虑了随机效应和影响生物进化的关键遗传过程。该项目将使用这些新方法来检验关于广泛分布于新热带雨林的多种刺鼠群进化的历史假设。尽管这些啮齿动物在森林再生和疾病储存库中扮演着种子传播者的重要角色，但对它们的研究却很少。应用生物学上更现实的方法来理解这群哺乳动物的进化史，将为它们的多样化和生物地理学提供很好的解决模式。此外，在该项目前所未有的采样规模下，新热带多样性演变的关键见解可能会出现，并可以为未来新热带地区的研究和保护策略提供坚实的基础，特别是在亚马逊河流域和邻近地区。

Neotropical lowlands harbor the richest fauna on Earth and several historical hypotheses have been developed to explain present-day levels of biodiversity. Molecular-based studies supporting each of these hypotheses usually have been based on qualitative analyses that show genealogical relationships of species in a geographic context. This method may be misleading because such interpretations do not fully consider the inherent genetic variation contained within species. More recently, inferences based on a rigorous statistical framework are explicitly considering random effects and key genetic processes shaping biotic evolution. This project will use these new methods to test historical hypotheses concerning the evolution of a diverse group of spiny-rats, which are widely distributed in Neotropical rainforests.These rodents are poorly studied despite their critical role as seed dispersers in forest regeneration and disease reservoirs. Applying biologically more realistic methods to understand the evolutionary history of this group of mammals will provide well-resolved patterns of their diversification and biogeography. Moreover, at the unprecedented sampling scales of this project, key insights on the evolution of Neotropical diversity will likely emerge, and can serve as a strong basis for future research and conservation strategies in the Neotropics, particularly in Amazonia and adjacent regions.