Description du projet
Expliquer l’évolution du plan d’organisation des premiers vertébrés
En termes de plan d’organisation, les premiers vertébrés ont parcouru un long chemin. Alors que les principales transitions ont été corrélées aux tendances écologiques à long terme, de l’alimentation en suspension vers des modes de vie de plus en plus actifs, les biologistes et les paléontologues débattent encore sur l’origine du plan d’organisation des vertébrés. Afin d’élucider les scénarios écologiques dans lesquels les principaux groupes de vertébrés ont émergé, le projet EarlyVertEvo, financé par l’UE, appliquera de nouvelles techniques en paléobiologie pour étudier les gnathostomes souches fossiles. Le projet utilisera la morphométrie géométrique, des technologies de balayage de surface, la tomodensitométrie non destructive, des simulations de mécanique des fluides numérique, des expériences physiques hydrodynamiques et plusieurs méthodes d’analyse macro‑évolutive.
Objectif
Debate over the origin of vertebrate bodyplan has occupied biologists and palaeontologists alike for centuries but discussions around this topic have been hindered because living vertebrates are unrepresentative of the ancestral lineages in which the bodyplan was established. Major transitions in early vertebrate evolution have been correlated with a long-term ecological trend from suspension feeding towards increasingly active lifestyles. However, most previous morpho-functional interpretations largely rely on speculation and these ecological explanations of evolutionary events have generally been regarded as untestable as theories. The recent emergence of new virtual techniques in palaeobiology provides for the first time the opportunity to perform rigorous computational and physical examination to test these hypotheses. In this context, the overall aim of my research programme is the joint application of an array of state-of-the-art techniques in palaeobiology to fossil stem-gnathostomes in order to elucidate the ecological scenarios in which the major groups of vertebrates emerged and to shed light onto the underlying selective forces that drove the main evolutionary transitions of the group. For this, the whole morphological diversity and disparity of early vertebrates will be analysed from a functional, temporal and phylogenetic perspective, using Geometric Morphometrics, scanning surface-based technologies, non-destructive X-ray computed tomography, Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations, physical hydrodynamic experiments and several methods for macroevolutionary analysis. This research programme will allow me to establish myself as a world-class independent interdisciplinary researcher by providing a portfolio of high profile publications in international peer-reviewed journals, a world-class suite of interdisciplinary skills, and a world class research programme that will allow me to establish myself as an authority in the field.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
MSCA-IF-EF-ST - Standard EFCoordinateur
BS8 1QU Bristol
Royaume-Uni