Assessing the long-term stability of adaptive radiations using the fossil record

这项拟议的研究使用跨学科的方法来研究变化环境中的多样性和灭绝过程。适应性辐射是生物体多样化以履行各种生态角色的过程，它产生了地球上许多壮观的生态群落。但是，适应性辐射产生的生态群落是否会持续很长时间--以及环境变化在多大程度上重塑了它们--仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。该项目将在一个模式系统--加勒比的Anolis蜥蜴--中重建形态多样性，以评估适应性辐射产生的形态多样性的寿命。这项研究架起了生物科学和地球科学的桥梁，提供了一个跨学科的平台来培训不同的学生，包括来自代表性不足背景的本科生和正在接受培训以成为K-12 STEM教师的学生。此外，这个项目产生的三维头骨模型将被用来开发新的关于形态进化和多样性随时间变化的教育模块，将部署在本科和高中课堂上。拟议的研究提供了四个主要领域的重要信息：(1)表征物种如何在适应性辐射中划分形态空间；(2)确定生态群落是否在地质时间尺度上持续存在；(3)确定地质时间尺度上表型变化的性质；以及(4)确定表型多样性的变化是否与环境变化相关。这些问题将通过从保存有酒精的博物馆标本中创建一个关于现存Anolis物种的全面、高分辨率的X射线层析数据集，并将这些数据与大安的列斯群岛各地的Anolis化石标本相结合来解决。这项研究与进化生物学家、生态学家、古生物学家有关，在确定生态群落未来可能发生变化方面特别有指导意义。这一奖项反映了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。

The proposed research uses an interdisciplinary approach to study diversification and extinction processes in changing environments. Adaptive radiation, the process whereby organisms diversify to fulfill a variety of ecological roles, is responsible for producing many of the spectacular ecological communities on our planet. But whether the ecological communities generated from adaptive radiations persist over long timescales–and the extent to which they are reshaped by environmental change–remains an unresolved question. This project will reconstruct morphological diversity in a model system–the Anolis lizards of the Caribbean–to evaluate the longevity of morphological diversity generated by adaptive radiations. This research bridges the biological sciences and the geosciences, providing an interdisciplinary platform to train a diverse set of students, including undergraduates from underrepresented backgrounds and students who are training to become K-12 STEM teachers. Additionally, 3 dimensional models of skulls generated by this project will be used to develop new educational modules on morphological evolution and diversity change through time that will be deployed in undergraduate and high school classrooms. The proposed research provides significant information in four main areas: (1) characterizing how species partition morphospace in an adaptive radiation; (2) establishing whether ecological communities persist over geologic timescales; (3) identifying the nature of phenotypic change over geological timescales; and (4) determining if shifts in phenotypic diversity are correlated to environmental changes. These issues will be addressed through the creation of a comprehensive, high-resolution X-ray chromatography dataset of extant Anolis species from alcohol-preserved museum specimens and integration of those data with Anolis fossil specimens from throughout the Greater Antilles. The research is relevant to evolutionary biologists, ecologists, paleontologists, and will be particularly instructive in identifying how ecological communities might change in the future.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.