The evolution of mammalian developmental patterns in deep time

为什么一些有袋类动物在形态上比其他有袋类动物更多样化？在发育过程中发生的模式和过程塑造了成虫的变异性，但这些仍然鲜为人知，在有袋类动物中也是未知的。这极大地限制了人们对有袋类多样性是如何进化的理解。这个项目旨在使用新的分析方法来提供关于有袋类动物如何生长以及这些模式如何随着时间的推移而演变的第一批经验数据。通过这样做，它将从根本上洞察为什么澳大利亚有袋类动物如此多样化，以及形态特征是如何在发育过程中相互作用形成这种多样性的；这些知识是理解形态多样性是如何产生的以及是什么决定了物种如何进化的关键。

Why are some groups of marsupials more morphologically diverse than others? The patterns and processes occurring over development shape adult variability, and yet these remain poorly understood and unknown across marsupials. This significantly limits understanding of how marsupial diversity has evolved. This project aims to use novel analytical methods to provide the first empirical data on how marsupials grow, and how those patterns have evolved over time. In doing so it will yield fundamental insight into why Australia's marsupials are so diverse, and how morphological traits interact over development to shape this diversity; this knowledge is key to understanding how morphological diversity is generated and what determines how species evolve.