Echinoderms include familiar animals such as starfishes, sea urchins, and a wide array of extinct forms stretching back to the Cambrian Period, circa 500 million years ago. Echinoderms share a common ancestor with backboned animals and thus provide a crucial link to understanding a huge portion of the entire tree of life as well as the history of our species. This project, the Echinoderm Tree of Life Project, will resolve the phylogenetic placement of Echinoderms within the tree of life and clarify important unresolved relationships among major echinoderm lineages using data from genetic sequencing and anatomy.

Echinoderms are fascinating, and their unique features, such as mutable ligaments and novel means of detecting light, have biomedical engineering applications. Because research on such marine animals and their adaptations is naturally attractive to young people, excellent students are expected to be recruited and the importance of science will be communicated to a broad audience. Long-term impacts, embodied by scientific publications, textbooks, anatomical and genomic data, and extensive pages in the Tree of Life and Encyclopedia of Life web projects, will provide resources to researchers and educators. Outreach will include videos and broadcasts about marine exploration and applications of fundamental biological research across the biomedical sciences.

Agency
National Science Foundation (NSF)
Institute
Division of Environmental Biology (DEB)
Application #
1036358
Program Officer
Simon Malcomber
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
2011-01-01
Budget End
2016-12-31
Support Year
Fiscal Year
2010
Total Cost
$405,321
Indirect Cost
Name
Louisiana State University
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
Baton Rouge
State
LA
Country
United States
Zip Code
70803