Welcome to the 31st IUBS General Assembly and Conference on ...

Department of Geological Sciences, Indiana University, 1001
E10th Street, Blooming<strong>to</strong>n, IN 47401, USA. Email:
pdpolly@indiana.edu
Climate change research increasingly focuses on
dynamics among species, ecosystems <strong>and</strong> climates:
better data about <strong>the</strong> his<strong>to</strong>rical behaviours of <strong>the</strong>se
dynamics are urgently needed. Relevant data from
ecology, palaeon<strong>to</strong>logy <strong>and</strong> geology already exist, but <strong>the</strong>ir
integration is hampered by differences in temporal <strong>and</strong>
geographic scales. Ecometrics, <strong>the</strong> quantitative analysis
of functional traits, can help bridge <strong>the</strong>se scales because
<strong>the</strong>se ‘taxon‐free’ data are easily integrated across
<strong>the</strong>m. We study <strong>the</strong> locomo<strong>to</strong>r traits in terrestrial
vertebrate carnivores (mammals <strong>and</strong> snakes) in order <strong>to</strong>
better underst<strong>and</strong> how <strong>the</strong>se traits sort species <strong>and</strong>
communities in response <strong>to</strong> changing climates <strong>and</strong>
habitats. In modern North America, locomo<strong>to</strong>r traits of
both groups are strongly sorted by ecoregion <strong>and</strong>
vegetation type, suggesting that locomo<strong>to</strong>r specialization
plays an important role in vertebrate community
assembly dynamics on a large scale. The sorting is more
evident at <strong>the</strong> community level ra<strong>the</strong>r than at <strong>the</strong> species
level because <strong>the</strong> average effect of climate <strong>and</strong> vegetation
is stronger across species than it is for any individual
species. The relationship is strong enough that
macrovegetation can be predicted correctly by locomo<strong>to</strong>r
traits 60% of <strong>the</strong> time, as accurate as many climate‐based
global vegetation models. Unsurprisingly, <strong>the</strong>
relationship is weakest in areas where local habitats are
heterogeneous. Data from <strong>the</strong> last 350 ka demonstrate
that geographic response <strong>to</strong> climate changes is 2 <strong>to</strong> 3
orders of magnitude greater than evolutionary
adaptation. Examples of ecometric shifts in locomo<strong>to</strong>r
traits in response <strong>to</strong> changed habitats over his<strong>to</strong>rical
(decades) <strong>and</strong> paleon<strong>to</strong>logical (tens of thous<strong>and</strong>s of years)
time scales are presented.
Two new progoneatan complete
mi<strong>to</strong>chondrial genomes: phylogenetics <strong>and</strong>
evolutionary implications
Yan DONG
College of Life Sciences, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing
210046, China. Email: dongyan_bio@126.com
The complete mi<strong>to</strong>chondrial genomes of a microscopic
pauropod, Pauropus longiramus, <strong>and</strong> a giant pill
millipede, Sphaero<strong>the</strong>riidae sp. have been sequenced.
These 2 circular molecules contain <strong>the</strong> entire set of 37
genes with 14487 bp <strong>and</strong> 14970 bp in length,
respectively. Comparative analyses revealed that
Pauropus present a distinct gene organization for
effective compacting genome size by overlapping <strong>and</strong>
truncating tRNA genes with neighbor genes. The o<strong>the</strong>r,
Sphaero<strong>the</strong>riidae exhibit an ancestral gene order, which
is identical <strong>to</strong> that in Limulus polyphemus. Based on
extensive taxa sampling, <strong>the</strong> phylogenetic relationships
among <strong>the</strong> Progoneata were reconstructed. AU tests
rejected 4 previously phylogenetic hypo<strong>the</strong>ses that
break up <strong>the</strong> Progoneata clade (S + P + D). Our
mi<strong>to</strong>genomic phylogenetic relationships support <strong>the</strong>
<strong>to</strong>pology of ((S + P) + D), <strong>and</strong> confirm <strong>the</strong> basal position
of Chilopoda in Myriapoda. And a sister‐group
relationship between Pauropoda <strong>and</strong> Symphyla was
supported by present independent mi<strong>to</strong>genome
evidence. The myriapod time tree was derived from a
relaxed molecular clock by use of Bayesian method
combined with fossil‐calibrated analysis of 2 fossil
calibrations (<strong>the</strong> oldest known diplopod fossil <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>
first en<strong>to</strong>gnathan fossil). The origin of <strong>the</strong> Myriapoda
was estimated around 555 Mya (95% CI: 444–704 Mya),
it is comparable with <strong>the</strong> date of <strong>the</strong> Cambrian explosion
<strong>and</strong> c<strong>and</strong>idate myriapod‐like fossils found from <strong>the</strong>
Cambrian. The splitting of <strong>the</strong> ancestral lineages of
progoneatan <strong>and</strong> chilopod myriapods from a common
ances<strong>to</strong>r occurred during <strong>the</strong> Late Cambrian 505 Mya
with a 95% credible interval of 425–548 Mya. The
separation of <strong>the</strong> 2 clads, pauropodan <strong>and</strong> symphylan
dates back <strong>to</strong> 330 Mya (95% CI: 222–415 Mya) in <strong>the</strong>
Lower Carboniferous. The time‐scale we provided
suggests that early myriapod diversification leading <strong>to</strong>
<strong>the</strong> 4 extant stem groups was not <strong>the</strong> result of once
rapid radiation as previously proposed. A Carboniferous
origin of micro‐progoneatan might be related with <strong>the</strong>
contemporary environmental change.
Underst<strong>and</strong>ing science: <strong>the</strong> basis for
approaching conservation, evolution <strong>and</strong>
climate change
Marvalee H WAKE
87