Project description
Beetles help reveal the mechanisms behind paedomorphosis
Paedomorphosis is a poorly understood phenomenon in evolutionary biology whereby adult organisms retain juvenile traits. The evolutionary origins and underlying mechanisms behind various cases of paedomorphosis in animals are still unknown. The EU-funded PAEDOMORPHOSIS project will address this knowledge gap by using beetles, a mega-diverse insect order, to document the morphological changes in paedomorphic lineages. The aim is to test different hypotheses of morphological homology for paedomorphic characters in a phylogenetic framework using genomics. The research fellow will also identify evolutionary causes behind the repeated development of paedomorphosis. Results are expected to be scalable and, therefore, instrumental in generating an inclusive theory for the repeated origin of paedomorphosis across the entire animal kingdom.
Objective
Paedomorphosis is a poorly understood phenomenon in evolutionary biology in which juvenile traits of an organism are retained into adulthood. The evolutionary origins of, and driving forces behind, various cases of paedomorphosis in animals remain unknown. Exploring cases of paedomorphosis across the entire animal kingdom is a desired but overwhelming task, but beetles, a mega-diverse insect order with numerous paedomorphic lineages, is the best proxy to study this phenomenon within a manageable project and with high potential for broad extrapolations. With this project, I propose to (1) document the morphological changes in paedomorphic lineages across beetles to (2) test hypotheses of morphological homology for paedomorphic characters in a phylogenetic framework using genomics and to (3) identify evolutionary causes behind the repeated development of paedomorphosis. I expect the results to be scalable and thus instrumental in generating an inclusive theory of the repeated origin of paedomorphosis across the entire animal kingdom. Through my past research I developed a unique systematic knowledge of the elateroid beetles where paedomorphosis occurs with high frequency. The implementation of this project will raise me from a domain-restricted entomologist to an independent successful evolutionary biologist and thus maximize my chances for a tenure track position in a world-class research institution in Europe. Dr. Alexey Solodovnikov, my host at Copenhagen University, works with current integrative methods in systematic entomology, fundamental to the successful development of my ideas on paedomorphosis.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
1165 Kobenhavn
Denmark