Project Summary
Systematic Revision of the Etherioidea, the Freshwater Mussels (Mollusca: Unionoida) of the Gondwanan Continents
Intellectual Merit.— This revision of the Etherioidea, the freshwater mussels of the Gondwanan continents, is part of a larger project to revise the whole of the bivalve order Unionoida. Thirty years have passed since the last comprehensive syntheses of these mollusks. Moreover, most aspects of their evolutionary history have not been re-evaluated in the light of modern cladistic and biogeographic theories. Roughly 750 nominal species are ascribed to the Etherioidea, although the current consensus recognizes only about 180 species and subspecies due to synonymy. This project will revise the classification of the Etherioidea, pulling together data from museum specimens worldwide and 250 years of literature, and supra-specific classifications will be tested through phylogenetic analysis of characters from shells, soft-anatomy, life history, development (i.e., larvae) and DNA.
The product of this research will be a complete monograph of the Etherioidea that will integrate a complete database of all nominal species and genera and associated nomenclatural and specimen data, with the discovered patterns of phylogeny, geographical distribution and morphological variation. These will provide the basis for testing hypotheses of monophyly, historical biogeography and character evolution. The results will be disseminated through traditional print media, but will especially take advantage of modern electronic media such as the Internet (i.e., this site). This will enhance communication among mollusk systematists around the world and provide an interface for discussion of research, education and out-reach opportunities.
The revision of the Etherioidea will be a timely contribution to general evolutionary science. Freshwater mussels are model taxa for addressing diverse research problems, such as paleoecology, speciation, parasite-host interactions and doubly-uniparental inheritance of mitochondria. Research along these lines has been slow due to the lack of a robust and comprehensive classification based on firm evolutionary theory.
Broader Impacts.— Integral to this research is the training and development of young biologists. Both of the project’s PIs are Beginning Investigators; Graf received his Ph.D. in 2001. Further, funding is requested to hire research assistants. The PIs will strive to make these positions research positions for current students or recent graduates, expecting them not only to assist with data collection and processing but also providing the opportunity to take the lead on subprojects. This project will be excellent preparation for a student planning for graduate work. These positions will be advertised widely to encourage women and underrepresented minorities to apply. Undergraduates will also be involved through training opportunities in NSF’s Nyanza Project and the NSF REU program at the ANSP.
This project is a collaboration between the Academy of Natural Sciences and the Illinois Natural History Survey, building and enhancing a history of interaction between those two in-stitutions. In addition, this project builds infrastructure by creating a data-model that could easily be implemented by taxonomists working on other freshwater taxa.
Outreach will be facilitated through the web site by developing pages tailored to the general public, as well as by participation in scientific and other public meetings and through publication of our findings in popular media. The information provided by this project will give conservationists and local management personnel, who depend on accurate taxonomies and biological data, an authoritative source to assist in their efforts to save one of the most imperiled groups of mollusks in the world.
Non-technical abstract #1
This abstract is also available from NSF.
This project is a collaboration between Dr. Dan Graf of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia and Kevin Cummings of the Illinois Natural History Survey, building and enhancing a history of interaction between those two institutions.
Freshwater mussels are perhaps the most endangered group of animals in the world and the focus of much conservation interest. One of the impediments to protecting these animals is elucidating their evolutionary relationships. Thirty years have passed since the last comprehensive syntheses of these mollusks. Moreover, most aspects of their evolutionary history have not been re-evaluated in the light of modern theories. This revision of the Etherioidea, the freshwater mussels of the Southern Hemisphere, is part of a larger project to revise the whole of the bivalve order Unionoida.
A major problem in this group is sorting through and trying to make sense of the multitude of names that have been ascribed to them. Roughly 750 species have been described in the Etherioidea, although the current consensus recognizes only about 180 species and subspecies due to synonymy. This project will revise the classification of the Etherioidea, pulling together data from museum specimens worldwide and 250 years of literature.
The results will be disseminated through traditional print media, but will especially take advantage of modern electronic media such as the Internet (i.e., this site). This project will enhance communication among mollusk scientists around the world and provide an interface for discussion of research, education and outreach opportunities.
The information provided by this project will give conservationists and local management personnel, who depend on accurate taxonomies and biological data, an authoritative source to assist in their efforts to save one of the most imperiled groups of mollusks in the world.
Non-Technical Abstract #2
This abstract is also available from NSF.
A grant has been awarded to Dr. Daniel Graf of the Academy of Natural Sciences in collaboration with Kevin Cummings of the University of Illinois to document the diversity and evolutionary relationships of a group of southern hemisphere mollusks known as etherioidean freshwater mussels. These animals are of interest to biologists because of their wide distribution on South America, Africa, Madagascar, India and Australia and because they have a life cycle that involves a fascinating larval stage which is parasitic upon fish. Recent analyses indicate that etherioidean freshwater mussels are closely related to each other, and this, combined with their enormous geographic range on the southern continents suggests that these patterns are the result of ancient continental drift. This research will test these hypotheses of evolutionary relationship and biogeographical processes by synthesizing the vast amounts of zoological information about freshwater mussels that is housed in museums and recorded in over 250 years of biological literature. The result will be a complete synthesis and reclassification of the nearly 200 species of etherioidean freshwater mussels.
The data and conclusions generated by this research will not only be made available through traditional media but will also take advantage of modern means of dissemination such as CD-ROMs and the internet (i.e., this site). While this information will be of interest to scientists and conservation officials, it will also serve teachers, students and all members of the public interested in better understanding their world. Besides providing a novel scientific perspective on an interesting, important and imperiled fauna, this study will also serve to train up-and-coming biologists through hands-on research experience. |
