9419907 Krajewski Dasyurid marsupials are the dominant terrestrial carnivores of Australia and New Guinea. The proposed study will continue the rich tradition of investigation into dasyurid relationshisp, one that began nearly a century ago with basic anatomical descriptions and has lately incorporated direct comparisons of gene sequences. The project breaks new ground in combining information from three genes, one rapidly and one slowing evolving locus from the mitochondrial genome (cytochrome b and 12rDNA, respectively), and one from the nucleus (protamine P1). Protamines are short peptides that package chromosomal DNA molecules in sperm cells, and their gene sequences have proven valuable in elucidating the relationships of several mammalian groups. Once assembled for all dasyurid species, this genetic database will refine our estimate of phylogeny to the point where specific questions about dasyurid evolution can be addressed. Most importantly, the answers to such questions can be made precise. New analytical procedures for detecting the coevolutionary relationships (if any) of species and their areas, as well as methods for reconstructing ancestral adaptations, are powerful because they operate on a known phylogeny. In effect, phylogeny is the framework for integrating, proximate, ecological explanations of biological diversity with their ultimate, evolutionary counterparts.
