NSFDEB-NERC Origins and expansion of endemic biodiversity in western Melanesia and their relation to tectonic evolution

NSFDEB-NERC 西美拉尼西亚特有生物多样性的起源和扩展及其与构造演化的关系

• 批准号: NE/W006774/2
• 负责人: Simon Maddock
• 金额: $ 37.72万
• 依托单位: Newcastle University
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FW006774%2F2
• 关键词: NSFDEB; NERC; Origins; expansion; endemic

Western Melanesia-including New Guinea-sits at the crossroads of Asia and Australia and is one of the most interesting, puzzling, and understudied hyperdiverse regions on Earth. Clarifying how tectonic movements have sundered or joined different Melanesian landforms in the past several million years is key to understanding the origins of this biotic diversity. The intent of this project is to elucidate how the diversity and evolutionary history of the five major geological landforms that comprise most of western Melanesia have impacted evolution of that region's biota and to identify those ancient insular landmasses critical in the origin of lineages that colonised and radiated across New Guinea, Australia, and/or insular Asia. To meet this goal, we will construct dated phylogenetic trees on a multitude of reptile and amphibian (herpetofauna) lineages having different dispersal abilities, times of origin, and natural histories that span the five major landmasses of western Melanesia. We will use the dates and relationships recovered to identify areas and times of origin for each clade and trace their expansion to new regions. Cross-validation between these results and updated geological models will illuminate tectonic events that drove speciation and dispersal in the region. We use herpetofauna to address these questions because their variable but moderate trans-marine dispersal abilities allow them to better track geological history than do taxa having much greater (e.g., birds) or lesser (e.g., land snails) dispersal capabilities. This research will help to replace the outdated, unidirectional "out-of-New-Guinea" model for origins of Pacific biodiversity with a more dynamic and nuanced understanding that ancient, yet under-appreciated, land areas in Melanesia have long been important in shaping biotic evolution in the broader region.

西部美拉尼西亚在亚洲和澳大利亚的十字路口，包括新几内亚，是地球上最有趣，令人困惑和研究的超多样地区之一。阐明构造运动在过去几百万年中如何散布或加入了不同的美拉尼西亚地形，这是了解这种生物多样性的起源的关键。该项目的目的是阐明构成大多数西部美拉尼西亚的五个主要地质地形的多样性和进化历史如何影响该地区的生物群体的发展，并确定那些在遍布新几内亚，澳大利亚，澳大利亚，/或岛上的远离谱系中至关重要的古老的岛屿质量。为了实现这一目标，我们将在跨越具有不同分散能力的不同分散能力，起源时期和自然历史的众多爬行动物和两栖动物（Herpetofauna）谱系上建造过时的系统发育树。我们将使用所恢复的日期和关系来确定每个进化枝的原产地和原始时间，并追踪其扩展到新区域。这些结果与更新的地质模型之间的交叉验证将阐明该地区的物种形成和扩散的构造事件。我们使用Herpetofauna来解决这些问题，因为它们的可变但中等的透射式分散能力使他们能够更好地跟踪地质历史，而不是具有更大（例如，鸟类）或更小（例如，土地蜗牛）分散功能的分类单元。这项研究将有助于取代太平洋生物多样性起源的过时的，单向的“新葡萄岛”模型，并具有更具动态和细致的理解，即远古但被低估的美拉尼西亚土地地区长期以来在塑造更广泛地区的生物进化方面一直很重要。