Project description
Pioneering insight into Mesozoic vertebrate evolution
The Mesozoic period – about 250 to 65 million years ago – includes the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. It is marked by dramatic biological changes, including the rise and fall of the dinosaurs and a transition from ancient life forms to those more familiar today. Important gaps exist in Mesozoic mammal specimens and 3D data for them, making it challenging to study vertebrate evolution. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the Mammal-Dawn project aims to address these gaps. It will leverage 30 well-preserved crania and over 180 upper and lower dental specimens of Mesozoic mammals together with advanced 3D scanning and morphometric techniques to study Mesozoic cranial evolution.
Objective
Since their origination in the Late Triassic, a series of evolutionary innovations throughout the Mesozoic Era resulted in the morphological, physiological, and ecological bauplan for mammals and set the path to their modern success. Due to the incomplete nature and limited access to 3D data for Mesozoic mammal specimens, their evolutionary morphology remains unexplored under a quantitative framework, creating a major knowledge gap in vertebrate evolution. This proposal aims to investigate macroevolutionary patterns of early mammals during the Mesozoic using advanced 3D geometric morphometric techniques. It will generate a new dataset covering 30 well-preserved crania and over 180 upper and lower dentition across major clades of Mesozoic mammals, using advanced 3D scanning technologies, including X-ray Computed Tomography, Synchrotron and Neutron Tomography. Cutting-edge landmark-based and landmark-free morphometric methods will be used to quantify shape variation and underlying effects of allometry and ecological traits.
These analyses will reveal trends of cranial evolution, testing whether the cranial morphology in Mesozoic mammals evolved gradually or followed a punctuated pattern. It will also reveal shifts of phenotypic integration and modularity across the tooth row, providing insights into the mechanisms that shaped unusual key innovations of heterodonty and dental complexity in mammals and how that related to other changes in skull morphology through the Mesozoic. The proposed research will not only fill a significant knowledge gap in vertebrate evolution but will also equip the applicant with essential skills in quantitative approaches urgently needed in Chinese paleontology, positioning the applicant as a leading independent researcher in this field.
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 earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
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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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
MAIN PROGRAMME
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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.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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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) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01
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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.
SW7 5BD London
United Kingdom
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.