Award Abstract # 1601830
DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Testing macroevolutionary predictions of diversity and disparity in the ray-finned fishes

NSF Org: DEB
Division Of Environmental Biology
Recipient: UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES
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: FY 2016 = $20,020.00
History of Investigator:
  • Michael Alfaro (Principal Investigator)
    michaelalfaro@ucla.edu
  • Jonathan Chang (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office: University of California-Los Angeles
10889 WILSHIRE BLVD STE 700
LOS ANGELES
CA  US  90024-4200
(310)794-0102
Sponsor Congressional District: 36
Primary Place of Performance: University of California-Los Angeles
610 Charles E Young Drive East
Los Angeles
CA  US  90095-1606
Primary Place of Performance
Congressional District:
36
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): RN64EPNH8JC6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s): Systematics & Biodiversity Sci
Primary Program Source: 01001617DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s): 9179, SMET
Program Element Code(s): 737400
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

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(Showing: 1 - 10 of 14)
Burin, Gustavo and Alencar, Laura R V and Chang, Jonathan and Alfaro, Michael E and Quental, Tiago B "How Well Can We Estimate Diversity Dynamics for Clades in Diversity Decline?" Systematic Biology , v.68 , 2018 , p.4762 10.1093/sysbio/syy037
Chang, Jonathan and Rabosky, Daniel L and Alfaro, Michael E "Estimating Diversification Rates on Incompletely Sampled Phylogenies: Theoretical Concerns and Practical Solutions" Systematic Biology , 2019 10.1093/sysbio/syz081
Chang, Jonathan and Rabosky, Daniel L. and Smith, Stephen A. and Alfaro, Michael E. "An R package and online resource for macroevolutionary studies using the rayfinned fish tree of life" Methods in Ecology and Evolution , v.10 , 2019 , p.111811 10.1111/2041-210x.13182
DiBattista, Joseph D. and Alfaro, Michael E. and Sorenson, Laurie and Choat, John H. and Hobbs, Jean-Paul A. and Sinclair-Taylor, Tane H. and Rocha, Luiz A. and Chang, Jonathan and Luiz, Osmar J. and Cowman, Peter F. and et al. "Ice ages and butterflyfishes: Phylogenomics elucidates the ecological and evolutionary history of reef fishes in an endemism hotspot" Ecology and Evolution , v.8 , 2018 , p.109891 10.1002/ece3.4566
DL Rabosky, J Chang, PO Title, PF Cowman, L Sallan, M Friedman, K Kaschner, C Garilao, TJ Near, M Coll, ME Alfaro "An inverse latitudinal gradient in speciation rate for marine fishes" Nature , 2018 10.1038/s41586-018-0273-1
DL Rabosky, JS Mitchell, J Chang "Is BAMM flawed? Theoretical and practical concerns in the analysis of multi-rate diversification models" Systematic Biology , v.66 , 2017 , p.477 10.1093/sysbio/syx037
G Burin, LRV de Alencar, J Chang, ME Alfaro, TB Quental "How well can we estimate diversity dynamics for clades in diversity decline?" Systematic Biology , 2018 10.1093/sysbio/syy037
Lima, Marcela G.M. and Silva-Júnior, José de Sousa e and erný, David and Buckner, Janet C. and Aleixo, Alexandre and Chang, Jonathan and Zheng, Jimmy and Alfaro, Michael E. and Martins, Amely and Di Fiore, Anthony and et al. "A phylogenomic perspective on the robust capuchin monkey (Sapajus) radiation: First evidence for extensive population admixture across South America" Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution , v.124 , 2018 , p.137150 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.02.023
Liu, Shang-Yin Vanson and Frédérich, Bruno and Lavoué, Sébastien and Chang, Jonathan and Erdmann, Mark V. and Mahardika, Gusti Ngurah and Barber, Paul H. "Buccal venom gland associates with increased of diversification rate in the fang blenny fish Meiacanthus (Blenniidae; Teleostei)" Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution , v.125 , 2018 , p.138146 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.03.027
MGM Lima, J de Sousa e Silva-Júnior, D ?erný, JC Buckner, A Aleixo, J Chang, J Zheng, ME Alfaro, A Di Fiore, JP Boubli, JW Lynch Alfaro "A phylogenomic perspective on the robust capuchin monkey (Sapajus) radiation: First evidence for extensive population admixture across South America" Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution , v.214 , 2018 , p.137 10.1016/j.ympev.2018.02.023
Rabosky, Daniel L. and Chang, Jonathan and Title, Pascal O. and Cowman, Peter F. and Sallan, Lauren and Friedman, Matt and Kaschner, Kristin and Garilao, Cristina and Near, Thomas J. and Coll, Marta and et al. "An inverse latitudinal gradient in speciation rate for marine fishes" Nature , v.559 , 2018 , p.392395 10.1038/s41586-018-0273-1
(Showing: 1 - 10 of 14)

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

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