| 项目编号: | 1700786
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| 项目名称: | Dissertation Research: Surviving the K/Pg Mass Extinction: the genome as a life history character in birds |
| 作者: | Irby Lovette
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| 承担单位: | Cornell University
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| 批准年: | 2017
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| 开始日期: | 2017-08-01
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| 结束日期: | 2019-07-31
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| 资助金额: | 20226
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| 资助来源: | US-NSF
|
| 项目类别: | Standard Grant
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| 国家: | US
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| 语种: | 英语
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| 特色学科分类: | Biological Sciences - Environmental Biology
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| 英文关键词: | modern bird
; researcher
; project
; research
; study
; genome evolution
; mass extinction
; avian life history evolution
; life history variation
; k/pg mass extinction
; rate
; fossil record
; paleo-life history diversity
; unknown life history trait
; age
|
| 英文摘要: | Birds are among the most charismatic and broadly appreciated groups of living organisms, but the early origins of the modern bird radiation remain shrouded in mystery. One particularly vexing problem concerns the age of birds. Estimates based on the rate of DNA evolution suggest modern birds started to evolve about 160 million-years ago; the fossil record however, suggests an age that is scarcely older than 66 million years. Explaining the ~100-million-year gap in the fossil record profoundly limits our ability to understand when, how, and why modern bird diversity came to be. This project examines disagreements between molecular divergence time analyses and the avian fossil record, and studies a new hypothesis to explain the observed discrepancy. The project synthesizes data from paleontological and genomic datasets with predictions from population genetic theory. This work also paves the way for an integrative approach to studying evolutionary patterns across other branches of the tree of life. Moreover, the study investigates the effects of the K/Pg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) mass extinction, with important implications for understanding the decimation of Mesozoic dinosaurs and their resurrection in the form of modern birds. Such work may reveal fundamental clues into how and when Earth's modern biodiversity arose. Finally, the researchers will take advantage of the diverse outreach mechanisms at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to communicate their findings to a broad audience.
In the first part of the project, the researchers will study the age of modern birds using a variety of simulation, empirical and theoretical approaches grounded in the study of systematics. The researchers will use recent developments in Bayesian modeling to test the hypothesis that transient miniaturization of body size in the wake of the K/Pg mass extinction can explain a period of molecular rate acceleration in the extinction's aftermath. In the second part of the project, the researchers will study the feasibility of reconstructing unknown life history traits from extant and extinct taxa, conditioned on inferred rates of molecular evolution. A key component of the work will be to advance expertise in distributed high performance computing for phylogenetics, and in analyzing data related to avian life history evolution. In general, the research will leverage the recognition that rates of genome evolution are an important axis of life history variation to promote a progressive approach to studying paleo-life history diversity, and enable the integration of historically disparate information sources. The research will have potentially broad significance to comparative biology and phylogenetics, and may influence the field of divergence time analysis in both the short and long term. |
| 资源类型: | 项目
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| 标识符: | http://119.78.100.158/handle/2HF3EXSE/89566
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| Appears in Collections: | 全球变化的国际研究计划
科学计划与规划
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| Recommended Citation: | |
Irby Lovette. Dissertation Research: Surviving the K/Pg Mass Extinction: the genome as a life history character in birds. 2017-01-01.
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