This project involves reconstructing the evolutionary history of a major group of fossil trilobites, the family Cheiruridae. The investigators will conduct a global survey of relevant fossil species, using data from the published literature, existing field collections, new field collections, and museum specimens. Evolutionary history will be reconstructed using modern quantitative methods. Hypotheses about relationships will then be applied to a range of important questions in paleobiology, shedding light on subjects such as the nature of mass extinctions, biogeography, and rates of speciation.
Knowledge of evolutionary relationships is a basic requirement for understanding the history of life on Earth, yet modern quantitative methods have not always been applied to the study of fossil animals. The project seeks to redress this by using phylogenetic analysis to consider a diverse and important fossil group; further, this study will potentially serve as a model for the use of fossils to address major evolutionary questions. The project will train several students in evolutionary systematics, will serve public and K-12 education via a website and traveling museum exhibit, and will also serve the broader discipline by generating new data and also linking these data to existing biological databases.
