Collaborative Research: EAGER: The early evolution of lamp shells and relatives (brachiopods) using an integrated approach combining genomics and fossils

灯壳及近亲(腕足类)是海洋动物，是世界上最古老的多细胞生物之一。尽管今天腕足类物种不再众多，但在5.4亿-2.5亿年前，腕足类物种是海洋生态系统的主要组成部分。由于其矿化的贝壳，腕足类很有可能作为化石被保存下来，并且拥有所有动物类别中最完整的化石记录之一。这个项目旨在解决一个长期存在的争论，即不同的腕足类群体之间以及与其他动物之间的关系。来自北美、克罗地亚、日本、新西兰和世界其他几个地区的活腕足动物将被抽样，以寻找遗传物质，这些遗传物质将用于重建腕足动物之间的进化关系。然后，这些遗传数据将与它们丰富的化石记录中的数据结合起来，以测试寒武纪时期的进化速度是否高于最近的时期。将组织几个讲习班，培训新一代早期职业科学家，使他们掌握各种基因组和古生物学方法。该项目还将开发新的教学视频和附带的教案，旨在教高中理科学生如何从生物学基础上构建地球科学内容。腕足类是寒武纪化石记录中最早出现的矿化后生动物之一，但这些早期形式之间的系统发育关系尚不清楚。虽然腕足类化石记录最终将是在独特的腕足类身体计划进化过程中确定特征同源性和极性的关键，但由于对活着的支系之间的关系存在分歧，正确阅读这一记录一直是困难的。这个项目将使用一种综合的方法来了解腕足类的系统发育和早期动物进化的宏观进化模式。首先，一项广泛的田野调查活动将收集适合高质量RNA提取和转录组测序的腕足类标本。这些数据将构成这项研究的核心：第一个腕足类的系统基因组研究，这将导致一个强大的现代支系的系统发育框架。其次，将建立一个关于现存和化石腕足动物的全面形态数据库，并使用分子钟进行校准。这些分子和形态数据源将被结合起来，以检验寒武纪辐射期间形态和分子快速多样化期间的形态和分子演化假说。

Lamp shells and relatives (brachiopods) are marine animals that are one of the world's oldest forms of multicellular organisms. Although no longer numerous today, brachiopod species were a dominant component of marine ecosystems 540-250 million years ago. Because of their mineralized shells, brachiopods have a high chance of being preserved as fossils, and have one of the most complete fossil records of any animal group. This project aims to solve a long-standing debate regarding how different brachiopod groups are related to each other and to other animals. Living brachiopods from North America, Croatia, Japan, New Zealand, and several other localities around the world will be sampled for genetic material that will be used to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among brachiopods. These genetic data will then be combined with data from their rich fossil record to test whether rates of evolution were higher during the Cambrian period than during more recent time periods. Several workshops will be organized to train a new generation of early career scientists in a diversity of genomic and paleontological methods. This project will also develop new instructional videos and accompanying lesson plans designed to teach high school science students how to build earth science content from a biological foundation. Brachiopods are amongst the first mineralized metazoans to appear in the fossil record during the Cambrian, yet agreement about the phylogenetic relationships among these early forms is still unknown. While the brachiopod fossil record will ultimately be key to determining character homology and polarity during the evolution of the distinctive brachiopod body plan, correctly reading this record has been difficult due to disagreement about relationships among the living clades. This project will use an integrated approach to understand the phylogeny of brachiopods and macroevolutionary patterns of early animal evolution. First, a widespread fieldwork campaign will collect brachiopod specimens suitable for high-quality RNA extraction and transcriptome sequencing. These data will form the basis for the heart of this study: the first phylogenomic study of brachiopods, which will result in a robust phylogenetic framework for the modern clades. Second, a comprehensive morphological database for living and fossil brachiopods will be constructed and calibrated using a molecular clock. These molecular and morphological data sources will be combined to test hypotheses of morphological and molecular evolution during the rapid diversification of form during the Cambrian radiation.