Collaborative Research: Inferring the impacts of closely-related species on phenotypic evolution

在岛屿上自然选择的一个经典例子中，达尔文雀的喙之间的显着差异使这些物种能够共存，因为它们吃的食物类型非常不同。同样的过程在塑造许多其他生物的进化过程中也可能很重要，但如果没有岛屿的明确地理边界和达尔文雀惊人的不同体型，它们的影响可能很难被发现。该项目的重点是Sceloporus蜥蜴，这是一个经常共存的大种群，在墨西哥和美国西南部都很丰富。研究人员将收集体型和环境特征的详细测量结果，并开发新的统计方法来识别与通才大陆物种不同的身体和栖息地类型。然后，他们将测试在同一地理区域共存的物种是否在体型和生态方面彼此不同，并重建具有地理精度的共存物种的古老历史。该项目强调国际合作（美国和墨西哥）和社区科学实践。它还将把研究纳入三个机构教授的正式课程，并通过博物馆展览和其他形式的公共宣传传播研究成果。生活在地理上接近的密切相关的分类群（即，同域同源物）强加了一种潜在的广泛的和未被认识到的进化现象。该项目将从CT扫描和博物馆标本的几何形态测量分析中收集新的数据，对墨西哥和美国西南部的500个地点进行蜥蜴实地调查，并开发新的地理学测试，以确定Sceloporus蜥蜴是否倾向于与密切相关的类群共存。此外，研究人员将结合联合收割机系统发育，气候和化石信息，重建Sceloporus物种组合及其形态的详细进化和地理历史，测试有关物种间相互作用导致物种更替和多样化的过程的假设。这些分析将测试关于觅食，栖息地利用和奇偶性作为种间相互作用驱动因素的重要性的假设，询问同域同源物是否在重复的进化事件中施加了类似的选择压力，并测试同域物种组合的生物多样性之间的联系（例如，物种丰富度，系统发育多样性）和景观特征（例如，生境异质性）。该项目还将通过为那些希望对其他分类群进行类似分析的人添加新数据和R脚本来为未来的研究做出贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

In a classic example of natural selection on islands, the remarkable differences among the bills of Darwin’s finches allow these species to co-exist because they eat very different types of food. The same processes may also be important in shaping evolution in many other organisms, but their effects can be difficult to detect without the clear geographic boundaries of islands and the strikingly different body forms of Darwin’s finches. This project focuses on Sceloporus lizards, a large group of species that often co-exist, and that are abundant throughout Mexico and the southwestern United States. The researchers will gather detailed measurements of body shape and environmental features, and develop new statistical approaches to identify body and habitat types distinct from generalist, mainland species. They will then test whether species that co-exist in the same geographic areas differ from each other in body form and ecology, and reconstruct the ancient history of co-existing species with geographic precision. The project emphasizes international collaboration (US and Mexico) and community science practices. It will also embed the research in formal courses taught at three institutions, and disseminate results through museum exhibits and other forms of public outreach. Closely related taxa that live in geographic proximity (i.e., sympatric congeners) impose a potentially widespread and under-recognized evolutionary phenomenon. This project will gather new data from CT scans and from geometric morphometric analyses of museum specimens, conduct lizard field surveys of 500 sites in Mexico and the southwestern United States, and develop new phylogeographic tests of whether Sceloporus lizards tend to co-exist with closely related taxa. In addition, the researchers will combine phylogenetic, climate, and fossil information to reconstruct the detailed evolutionary and geographic history of Sceloporus species assemblages and their morphologies, testing hypotheses about the processes by which interspecies interactions lead to species turnover and diversification. These analyses will test hypotheses about the importance of foraging, habitat use, and parity as drivers of interspecific interactions, ask whether sympatric congeners have imposed similar selective pressures in repeated evolutionary episodes, and test for links between the biodiversity of sympatric species assemblages (e.g., species richness, phylogenetic diversity) and landscape characteristics (e.g., habitat heterogeneity). The project will also contribute to future studies by adding new data and R scripts for those who want to conduct similar analyses with other taxa.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.