Project description
How early dinosaurs became warm-blooded
How did pterosaurs and early dinosaurs become warm-blooded? Since fossils do not preserve metabolic information, it is difficult to reconstruct how their bodies functioned. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the REPTERMO project is combining CT scans of fossil inner ears with detailed studies of living birds and reptiles in order to refine a biomechanical method known as the Thermo-Motility Index. The method links inner-ear structure to metabolic physiology and will provide the first empirically based estimates of metabolic rates in extinct reptiles. This will help to pinpoint the origins of endothermy in the Late Triassic and shed light on the evolutionary success of pterosaurs and dinosaurs. The findings are slated to shed light on how pterosaurs and dinosaurs achieved evolutionary success.
Objective
REPTERMO asks when and how endothermy evolved in pterosaurs and early dinosaurs. Flight, rapid growth and filamentous integuments point to high metabolic rates in these clades, yet direct physiological inference from fossils remains difficult. REPTERMO will refine the Thermo-Motility Index (TMI), a biomechanical framework that uses morphometrics and functional models of the semicircular canals (SCC) to infer thermal physiology. A key gap is the lack of empirical data on ampullar stereocilia in living birds and reptiles; current parameters were extrapolated from a few modern species and likely bias SCC biomechanics and downstream estimates. The project aims to: i) reconstruct via Ct scanning the inner ears from early pterosaurs (e.g. Rhamphorhynchus), lagerpetids (e.g. Ixalerpeton) and dinosauromorphs (e.g. Silesaurus), expanded by focused fieldwork and museum visits; ii) describe stereocilia via histology in selected birds (e.g. Larus fuscus, Columba livia) and reptiles (e.g. Mauremys leprosa, Crocodylus niloticus) to quantify, for the first time, the cilia deflection factor (CDF); iii) integrate the substantial dataset of reconstructed inner ear and CDF measurements to recalibrate TMI and produce robust endothermy estimates across Ornithodira. By delivering the first empirically grounded link between SCC biomechanics and metabolic state in extinct reptiles, REPTERMO will locate the origin of hypothesised endothermy in the Late Triassic and help explain the early success of pterosaurs and dinosaurs. The results will strengthen paleoenvironmental reconstructions and stimulate evolutionary concepts, while advancing CT imaging, histology and quantitative 3D analysis with cross-disciplinary value. Hosted at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST, Lisbon) in Dr Araújo’s lab, the fellowship will deepen the researcher’s skills in biomechanics, metabolic evolution and statistics, consolidating a path to research leadership in vertebrate paleobiology.
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.
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
- natural sciences biological sciences biophysics
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences palaeontology
- natural sciences biological sciences histology
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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)
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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
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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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.
1049 001 Lisboa
Portugal
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.