NSFDEB-NERC: The evolution of visual systems during major life history transitions in frogs

生物体如何与环境相互作用取决于它们如何通过触觉、化学、电、磁和视觉线索感知外部刺激。动物的感觉系统检测环境变量，最终引发行为反应，以追求猎物，避免捕食者，调节稳态，并找到配偶。这些行为反应依赖于适应特定环境的感觉系统，因此可以对物种的分布（感觉生态学）产生重要影响，这反过来又可以促进种群和物种之间的进化分歧。由于感觉系统在动物生活的多个方面起着至关重要的作用，因此分析感觉系统的进化对于理解任何特定动物群体的多样性至关重要。我们的项目研究了视觉系统在青蛙历史上是如何进化的，特别是关于青蛙所经历的生态学和生活史的许多进化变化。例如，我们将研究视觉如何受到影响，并可能影响了明亮或性别二态性颜色模式的演变，以及穴居和不同种类的成年人和蝌蚪生活方式的演变。青蛙是一个主要的群体，有超过6，600个物种，已经进化了超过2.5亿年，但它们几乎没有被包括在以前的脊椎动物视觉研究中。我们的项目将大大推进脊椎动物视觉和青蛙进化的知识。该项目的广泛影响可以概括为四类：国际合作、培训、科学传播和博物馆展览。首先，这个项目是世界上两个最著名和多产的自然历史博物馆--史密森国家自然历史博物馆，华盛顿，美国和自然历史博物馆，伦敦（NHM）-其工作人员的共同努力，使这个项目的目标不仅可能，但可行的。此外，我们的合作者团队（青蛙专家和视觉生物学家）来自加蓬，巴西，英国，美国，厄瓜多尔和澳大利亚，形成了必要的网络和专家见解，使我们能够解决我们的具体目标和问题。其次，该项目将在NHM培养一名博士后研究员，并为在NHM爬虫学研究小组（该项目所在地）学习的硕士和本科生提供培训机会。第三，通过NHM的公众参与活动，将我们的研究结果传达给公众是我们提案的核心。最后，我们的研究产品将通过纳入即将举行的NHM临时展览“黑暗中的生活”（计划于2018年10月）向公众提供-其中将介绍对青蛙在夜间如何观看的最新了解。

How organisms interact with their environment depends on how they perceive external stimuli through, for example, tactile, chemical, electrical, magnetic, and visual cues. Animal sensory systems detect environmental variables that ultimately elicit behavioral responses to pursue prey, avoid predators, regulate homeostasis, and find mates. These behavioral responses depend on sensory systems that are adapted to particular environments and can thus have important consequences on the distribution of species (sensory ecology), which in turn can promote evolutionary divergence among populations and species. Because sensory systems play vital roles in multiple aspects of animals' lives, analyzing the evolution of sensory systems is fundamental to understanding the diversification of any particular animal group. Our project investigates how the visual system has evolved during the history of frogs, and particularly with respect to the many evolutionary changes in ecology and life history that frogs have undergone. For example, we will investigate how vision was influenced by and may have influenced the evolution of bright or sexually dimorphic colour patterns, and the evolution of burrowing and of different kinds of adult and tadpole lifestyles. Frogs are a major group, with > 6,600 living species that have evolved over >250 million years, yet they have barely been included in previous studies of vision of vertebrates. Our project will substantially advance knowledge of both vertebrate vision and frog evolution. The broader impacts of this project can be summarised in four categories: international collaboration, training, science communication, and museum exhibitions. First, this project is a collaboration between two of the world's best known and prolific natural history museums - the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C., USA and the Natural History Museum, London (NHM) - a joint effort of its personnel that makes the goals of this project not just possible, but feasible. Furthermore, our team of collaborators (both frog experts and vision biologists) from Gabon, Brazil, the UK, the USA, Ecuador, and Australia forms the essential network and expert insight that allows us to address our specific aims and questions. Second, this project will train a postdoctoral researcher at the NHM and provide training opportunities for Masters and undergraduate students that study within the NHM Herpetology Research Group (where the project is based). Third, a focus on communicating the results of our research to a public audience is central to our proposal - via public engagement events at the NHM. Finally, our research products will be made available to the public via incorporation into the upcoming NHM temporary exhibition "Life in the Dark" (scheduled October 2018) - where an updated understanding of how frogs see at night will be presented.