Closing a Gap in Macroevolutionary Studies: Integrating Fossils and Phenotypes to Illuminate Morphological Evolution in Monocot Flowering Plants

该项目将研究单子叶开花植物，这是一类高度多样化的植物，具有重要的经济和生态价值，包括许多主食(谷物、车前草、油棕榈树)、有园艺价值的植物(百合、兰花、蝴蝶花)，以及草原和湿地等生态系统的主要组成部分。我们将研究活的和化石的单子叶植物的叶子和果实/种子，以了解形态在这一重要群体的进化史上发生了怎样的变化。扩大我们对所有生命的进化模式和过程的理解，与应对当今的挑战有关，例如物种和地球系统将如何适应当前和未来的环境变化。该项目将为高中、本科生和研究生提供培训，包括那些来自STEM领域目前代表性不足的群体的学生。此外，还将创建一个新的网站，以提高对来自不同背景和经验的地球和环境科学家的认识，并在密歇根大学自然历史博物馆进行公开展示，帮助向公众传达这项研究的结果。单子叶开花植物的子集将被用作了解与表型多样性相关的宏观进化过程的模型系统。我们将收集泽泻目(水车前目和海草目)、石松目(螺旋松目)、槟榔目(棕榈目)和生姜目(香蕉和生姜目)的叶片和果实/种子特征的形态数据，以建立一个新的表型框架，促进化石分类群的解释和系统发育定位。将使用修改后的化石记录制作一份新的时间校准的系统发育树。植物性状的特性，包括性状之间的相关性以及营养(叶)和生殖(果实/种子)性状在系统发育推断上的差异，将被表征。最后，表型数据将被分析以推断形态空间的时间变化，量化差异，并确定这四个单子叶分支的形态进化的速率和模式。该奖项是与系统学和生物多样性科学计划(环境生物学部门)共同资助的。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。

This project will study monocot flowering plants, a highly diverse group of plants that are economically and ecologically important, including many staple foods (grains, plantains, oil palms), horticulturally valuable plants (lilies, orchids, irises), and the main components of ecosystems such as grasslands and wetlands. The leaves and fruits/seeds from both living and fossil monocots will be studied to understand how morphology has changed over the evolutionary history of this important group. Broadening our understanding of evolutionary patterns and processes across all life is relevant to addressing present-day challenges such as how species and Earth systems will adapt to current and future environmental change. The project will provide training for high school, undergraduate, and graduate students, including those who are from groups that are currently underrepresented in STEM fields. In addition, a new website to increase recognition of Earth & environmental scientists who are from a diversity of backgrounds and experiences will be created and a public display at the University of Michigan Natural History Museum will help communicate findings from this research to the public.A subset of monocot flowering plants will be used as a model system for understanding macroevolutionary processes relating to phenotypic diversity. Morphological data on leaf and fruit/seed traits from four orders-Alismatales (water-plantains and seagrasses), Pandanales (screw-pines), Arecales (palms) and Zingiberales (bananas & gingers)-will be collected to build a novel phenotypic framework facilitating the interpretation and phylogenetic placement of fossil taxa. A new time-calibrated phylogenetic tree will be produced using a revised fossil record. Properties of plant traits, including correlations among traits and differences between vegetative (leaf) and reproductive (fruit/seed) traits on phylogenetic inference will be characterized. Finally, the phenotypic data will be analyzed to infer temporal shifts in morphospace, quantify disparity, and determine rates and modes of morphological evolution in these four clades of monocots.This award is co-funded with the Systematics and Biodiversity Sciences program (Division of Environmental Biology).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.