Integrating fossils and genomes to unravel the pattern of mammalian diversification through time.

利用基因组数据的系统发育方法已被成功地用于构建和研究现存哺乳动物物种之间的进化关系。然而，由于方法上的限制，形态学数据迄今未得到充分利用，这已成为一个限制因素时，试图估计模式的分歧和灭绝的进化史上这一组。拟议的项目旨在利用贝叶斯统计方法的最新进展，通过结合形态学（来自现存和灭绝物种）和基因组数据（来自现存物种）重建物种水平的哺乳动物进化史，并利用重建的进化史来揭示哺乳动物进化的模式。形态学数据将主要来自以前的工作和在线数据库中获得的CT扫描数据，还将补充项目过程中博物馆标本的新扫描。基因组数据将从在线数据库中获得。所提出的方法的优点是，化石物种将被用来作为过时的提示，在系统发育重建，这与广泛的基因组采样从现存的哺乳动物，将提供更多的信息，早期哺乳动物的进化相比，以前的研究。然后，这种重建的进化史可以用来估计进化速率和分歧时间，以便将关键的进化事件放在其地质/环境背景下，使我们能够解决一些重要的问题，如哺乳动物多样化和灭绝与古气候的关系，或了解该组中形态创新的遗传基础。这反过来可以为当前的气候危机以及它如何影响现代哺乳动物和其他脊椎动物的多样性和进化模式提供有用的推论。

Phylogenetic methods using genomic data have been used with great success to construct and study the evolutionary relationships between extant mammal species. However, due to methodological constraints, morphological data has so far been underutilised and this has become a limiting factor when trying to estimate patterns of divergence and extinction in the evolutionary history of this group. The proposed project aims to use recent advances in Bayesian statistical methods to reconstruct a species-level mammal phylogeny by combining morphology (from extant and extinct species) and genomic data (from extant species) and use the reconstructed phylogeny to unravel patterns of mammal evolution through time. Morphological data will come mainly from CT scan data obtained from previous work and online databases, which will also be supplemented with new scans from museum specimens taken over the course of the project. Genomic data will be obtained from online databases. The advantage of the proposed methodology is that fossil species will be used as dated tips in the phylogenetic reconstruction, which, together with extensive phylogenomic sampling from extant mammals, would provide more information about early mammalian evolution compared to previous studies. This reconstructed phylogeny can then be used to estimate rates of evolution and divergence times in order to place key evolutionary events in their geological/environmental context, allowing us to address a number of important questions, such as the relationship of mammal diversification and extinction to palaeoclimate or to understand the genetic basis of morphological innovation in this group. This could in turn provide useful inferences for the current climate crisis and how it may affect patterns of diversity and evolution in modern mammals and other vertebrates.