Objective
At the end of the Pleistocene mass extinctions of the mega-fauna occurred worldwide, in particular in the Americas. Following the last glacial period, mammoths, mastodonts, giant sloths and other large mammals succumbed until extinction (about 10,000 years ago). While some Orders within Mammalia lost a couple of species, the sloths (Folivora, Xenarthra) clade has virtually lost all its diversity, gaining a status of a nearly-extinct suborder. Only two out of the close to 100 genera estimated to have existed survived to the mass extinctions to this date, named Bradypus and Choloepus. In contrast to their giant relatives, the modern sloths are medium-sized animals that developed a very specialized feature: obligatory arboreal suspensory behaviour. Their surprisingly high number of superficial similarities were acquired in parallel – since both genera are completely unrelated, and probably diverged ~30 Mya – and represent an amazing example of convergent evolution. In the current Genomics era, we are finally at a point in which full genomes can be assembled for non-model organisms at reasonable costs, bringing unprecedented opportunities for new studies on elementary questions on evolution. Here we propose to study the genomic signs of convergent evolution leading to obligatory suspensory locomotion and low metabolic rate on a comparative genomic analysis including 4 whole genome sloth sequences, three of which will be sequenced and assembled within this study. The Experienced Researcher masters all the bioinformatics expertise to complete the genomes. The host institution offers all the infrastructure and hypothesis thinking to successfully finalize the project. Jointly this team can push the boundaries of biological knowledge beyond, which will help the applicant to mature in order to lead a research group in the future. The applicant will also be trained in project management, supervision, teaching, and presentation of scientific results.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology mammalogy
- natural sciences biological sciences genetics genomes
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EF
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2016
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
12489 Berlin
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.