Collaborative Research: Assembling the Echinoderm Tree of Life

Information

  • NSF Award
  • 1036219
Owner
  • Award Id
    1036219
  • Award Effective Date
    1/1/2011 - 13 years ago
  • Award Expiration Date
    6/30/2016 - 7 years ago
  • Award Amount
    $ 264,156.00
  • Award Instrument
    Continuing grant

Collaborative Research: Assembling the Echinoderm Tree of Life

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.<br/><br/>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.

  • Program Officer
    Simon Malcomber
  • Min Amd Letter Date
    9/16/2010 - 13 years ago
  • Max Amd Letter Date
    8/1/2011 - 12 years ago
  • ARRA Amount

Institutions

  • Name
    Nova Southeastern University
  • City
    FORT LAUDERDALE
  • State
    FL
  • Country
    United States
  • Address
    3301 COLLEGE AVE
  • Postal Code
    333147796
  • Phone Number
    9542625366

Investigators

  • First Name
    Charles
  • Last Name
    Messing
  • Email Address
    messingc@nsu.nova.edu
  • Start Date
    9/16/2010 12:00:00 AM

Program Element

  • Text
    ASSEMBLING THE TREE OF LIFE
  • Code
    7689

Program Reference

  • Text
    BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM DYNAMICS
  • Code
    9169
  • Text
    ENVIRONMENT AND GLOBAL CHANGE