PhD Studentship: A Multi-angle Study of Secondarily Aquatic Vertebrate Evolution

The transition from water to land ~400 million years ago was a key event in vertebrate evolutionary history giving rise to a vast range of terrestrial tetrapods. Despite this evolutionary success, all major groups of tetrapods had members since then going back to life in water, filling the fossil record with a range of independent aquatic invasions by tetrapods and producing many important players in today’s aquatic ecosystems. Compared to the initial conquest of land, the secondary transitions into aquatic living are poorly understood but they offer an exceptional opportunity for understanding the evolution of morphology and functional convergence. A fundamental understanding of how their diversity originated and changed through past environmental changes provide useful insights for conserving the diversity of today’s aquatic tetrapods, many of which are already at risk of extinction. Here, we propose a project to uncover the drivers and mechanisms involved in transitions from terrestrial to aquatic lifestyles by reconstructing the taxonomic, morphological and functional diversity of these lineages as well as their paleoenvironments. Specifically, this project will focus on a clade of secondary aquatic vertebrates per the PhD researcher’s interest and investigate their: 1) environmental drivers, 2) morphological evolution and 3) functional performance and diversity.  

For further information on this project and details of how to apply to it please click on the above 'Apply' button

Further information on how to apply for a CENTA studentship can be found on the CENTA website: https://centa.ac.uk/

This project is offered through the CENTA3 DTP, with funding from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Funding covers an annual stipend, tuition fees (at home-fee level) and Research Training Support Grant.

Advert information