
NSF Org: |
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology |
Recipient: |
|
Initial Amendment Date: | March 17, 2016 |
Latest Amendment Date: | March 17, 2016 |
Award Number: | 1601830 |
Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
Program Manager: |
Amanda Ingram
DEB Division Of Environmental Biology BIO Directorate for Biological Sciences |
Start Date: | July 1, 2016 |
End Date: | June 30, 2019 (Estimated) |
Total Intended Award Amount: | $20,020.00 |
Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $20,020.00 |
Funds Obligated to Date: |
|
History of Investigator: |
|
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
10889 WILSHIRE BLVD STE 700 LOS ANGELES CA US 90024-4200 (310)794-0102 |
Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
Primary Place of Performance: |
610 Charles E Young Drive East Los Angeles CA US 90095-1606 |
Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
Parent UEI: |
|
NSF Program(s): | Systematics & Biodiversity Sci |
Primary Program Source: |
|
Program Reference Code(s): |
|
Program Element Code(s): |
|
Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.074 |
ABSTRACT
Understanding why some groups of organisms have more species than other groups of organisms is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology. One proposed explanation for the process that creates this uneven diversity is evolvability, the idea that some lineages that have the intrinsic ability to evolve novel morphologies also have an increased ability to generate new species. Ray-finned fishes, representing half of all vertebrate diversity with 30,000 species, have an astonishingly disparate array of body forms. Fishes are also intensively harvested for human consumption, potentially leading to major impacts on their diversity and their ability to serve both as ecological role players and as a human food source. This project will aim to test the evolvability hypothesis by collecting data on fish body shape using museum collections and crowdsourcing. The researchers will digitize a vast store of biodiversity in museum collections to be made available online, for use by the public and interested researchers.
This project will (1) build the largest phylogeny of vertebrates, with over 12,000 species represented, (2) digitize ichthyology collections at three museums, (3) collect the largest geometric morphometric dataset, consisting of shape data for over 9,000 species of fishes, and (4) reconstruct the disparity among different fish lineages, and how their rates of body shape evolution have changed over time. Several key macroevolutionary predictions can be made based on differential evolvability across clades. More evolvable lineages should have higher richness and diversification rates, and enjoy more phenotypic disparity and rates of phenotypic evolution. Additionally, lineages that enjoy fast phenotypic evolution should also diversify into a larger variety of ecological niches.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Understanding why some groups of organisms have more species than other groups of organisms is a long-standing goal in evolutionary biology. One proposed explanation for the process that creates this uneven diversity is evolvability, the idea that some lineages that have the intrinsic ability to evolve novel morphologies also have an increased ability to generate new species. Ray-finned fishes, representing half of all vertebrate diversity with 30,000 species, have an astonishingly disparate array of body forms. Fishes are also intensively harvested for human consumption, potentially leading to major impacts on their diversity and their ability to serve both as ecological role players and as a human food source. This research combined previously-published molecular sequence data to generate a new phylogeny of ray-finned fish containing over 11,000 species and time-calibrate it using over 130 fossils. This new phylogeny described the evolutionary relationships among fish lineages, which was made available on an online resource to support both ichthylogical research as well as macroevolutionary work on a large species-rich group of organisms. This project also developed a new method to collect large amounts of morphological data using crowdsourcing. This method could be applied in other systems to vastly increase the amount of morphological and phenotypic data available for researchers.
Last Modified: 08/12/2019
Modified by: Jonathan Chang
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.