Collaborative Research: ARTS: North American camel spiders (Arachnida, Solifugae, Eremobatidae): systemic revision and biogeography of an understudied taxon

骆驼蜘蛛，也被称为风蝎或避难所，是在脆弱的、经常受到威胁的沙漠生态系统中发现的一种重要的蜘蛛类动物。它们是干旱生境中昆虫和其他节肢动物的主要捕食者，也是许多沙漠物种的重要猎物。众所周知，避难所很难研究，因为它们很难找到和收集，几乎不可能在实验室里保持生命，而且识别起来也很困难。与它们的名字相反，它们不是真正的蜘蛛，也不会织网，而是代表了一个独特的蜘蛛纲动物群体，拥有全球已知的1100多个物种。由于只有几个科学家研究他们生物学的任何方面，迫切需要培养致力于这一多样化群体生物学的新一代科学家。该项目将通过培训年轻的生物学家，包括高中生、本科生、研究生和博士后学者，彻底改变对地球生物多样性这一组成部分的研究。他们将使用最先进的分子工具来更好地了解北美最常见和最多样化的骆驼蜘蛛种群--骆驼蜘蛛科--物种之间的进化关系。该项目的另一个目标是使用骆驼蜘蛛作为一个模型系统，以探索地球历史事件如何影响沙漠社区物种的进化和聚集。这笔赠款利用北美骆驼蜘蛛仅存的专业知识来激励新一代科学家，他们将推动这一领域的发展。将开发一种创新和互动的在线识别指南-北美骆驼蜘蛛，使科学家、博物学家、教育工作者和其他人能够识别和了解这些鲜为人知的动物。该指南将为广大受众提供资源，并将支持开发和扩大一个关于骆驼蜘蛛生物学的信息丰富的新网站(www.solifugae.info)。该项目解决了骆驼蜘蛛研究中的系统和分类障碍，利用现有的专业知识培训学生在尖端系统学、生物地理学和分类学方法方面的知识。最近发表的骆驼蜘蛛最大家族之一--骆驼蜘蛛科的多基因座系统发育图，将为更彻底的分析提供一个起点，方法是有针对性地富集超微元素，以及被认为具有分类学信息的新颖和未被探索的形态特征。限制酶切位点相关DNA测序(RADseq)将被用来产生全基因组的SNP数据，通过检查两个明确定义的物种组，为首次进行骆驼蜘蛛的系统地理分析。作为该项目的一部分，特别是在奇瓦瓦沙漠、下加利福尼亚半岛和加州海岸山脉开展的广泛实地工作，无疑将揭示该家族的许多新物种，极大地增强对这些未被开发的干旱生态系统中存在的蜘蛛类多样性的了解。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Camel spiders, also known as wind scorpions or solifuges, are an important group of arachnids found in fragile, often threatened desert ecosystems. They are dominant predators of insects and other arthropods in arid habitats and are also important prey for many desert species. Solifuges are notoriously difficult to study since they are hard to find and collect, nearly impossible to keep alive in the lab, and challenging to identify. Contrary to their name, they are not true spiders and do not build webs but represent a unique arachnid group with over 1,100 species known worldwide. With only a few scientists studying any aspect of their biology, there is a pressing need to train a new generation of scientists devoted to the biology of this diverse group. This project will revolutionize the study of this component of the planet's biodiversity by training young biologists, including high school students, undergraduates, graduate students, and a postdoctoral scholar. They will use state-of-the-art molecular tools to better understand the evolutionary relationships among species in the most common and diverse group of camel spiders in North America, the Eremobatidae. Another goal of the project is to use camel spiders as a model system to explore how Earth history events have influenced the evolution and assembly of species in desert communities. This grant leverages the only remaining expertise on North American camel spiders to excite a new generation of scientists who will move this field forward. An innovative and interactive online identification guide, the Camel Spiders of North America, will be developed to enable scientists, naturalists, educators, and others to identify and learn about these little-known animals. The guide will provide a resource for a broad audience and will support the development and expansion of an informative new website on camel spider biology (www.solifugae.info).This project addresses the systematic and taxonomic impediments in the study of camel spiders by using existing expertise to train students in cutting-edge phylogenomic, biogeographic, and taxonomic methodology. A recently published multi-locus phylogeny of one of the largest families of camel spiders, the Eremobatidae, will provide a starting point for a more thorough analysis using targeted enrichment of ultraconserved elements, along with novel and underexplored morphological characters thought to be taxonomically informative. Restriction site-associated DNA sequencing (RADseq) will be used to generate genome-wide SNP data for the very first phylogeographic analyses of camel spiders by examining two well-defined species groups. Extensive fieldwork carried out as part of this project, particularly in the Chihuahuan Desert, Baja California peninsula, and California Coast Ranges, will undoubtedly reveal many new species in this family, greatly enhancing the understanding of arachnid diversity present in these under-explored arid ecosystems.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.