NERC GW4+ DTP PhD studentship: The Origin of Parental Care in Dinosaurs and Birds: Using Fossils and Phylogenies to Reconstruct Trends in the Evolution of Reproductive Ecology

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus six Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme, please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/.

At least 37 fully-funded studentships that encompass the breadth of earth and environmental sciences are being offered to start in September 2017 across the GW4+ DTP.

Supervisors:
Main supervisor - Dr Nicholas R. Longrich (University of Bath)
Co-supervisor(s) - Dr Paul Barrett (The Natural History Museum), Dr Daniel J. Field (University of Bath)


Project description:

How does reproduction evolve? Natural selection is often characterized as the “survival of the fittest”, but a trait that improves survival is meaningless if its owner does not reproduce. Natural selection is ultimately about differential reproduction, and for this reason animals have evolved a remarkable range of reproductive strategies. A sea turtle may lay 200 eggs at a time but then abandon the eggs. Albatross lay one egg every two years, but the chick is fed for and cared by both parents. Alligators are in between, laying a few dozen eggs and guarding the nest, but letting the young feed themselves. This project aims to explore how and why such differences evolve, using Archosauromorpha- birds, dinosaurs, crocodilians and turtles- as a model system.

Archosauromorphs are an ideal study system because the group has over 10,000 living species with a wide range of reproductive strategies, and their evolution spans over 250 million years. New molecular phylogenies[1] now make it possible to map out patterns of evolution in living species, and uniquely, dinosaurs’ fossilized eggs provide data on reproductive parameters such as clutch size and egg size for extinct members of the group. Using time-calibrated phylogenies and reproductive strategy as inferred from clutch size, we will test the following hypotheses:

i. the ancestral strategy of parental care in Dinosauria is precocial, self-feeding young;

ii. following the evolution of parental feeding in Neoaves, elaborate parental care strategies including evolved repeatedly in birds; furthermore this innovation coincides with adaptive radiation [1] driven by ecological release from the K-Pg extinctions [2]

iii. changes in parental care strategy of clades are associated with diversification and changes in body size

The project is anticipated to produce significant outputs in the form of publications from the main project, as has the potential for side projects on avian and dinosaurian palaeontology, including classic descriptive palaeontology. It is designed to provide the student the opportunity to acquire the diverse set of skills and track record needed to pursue a career in evolutionary biology and/or palaeontology. The project is jointly run by the University of Bath and the Natural History Museum in London, and supervised by N. Longrich with additional supervision by P. Upchurch and D. Field. Our lab group is small but invests heavily in student training (i.e. K-selected strategy). Current research projects include the tail of Archaeopteryx, pterosaur extinction, and adaptive radiation of crocodilians. The student is expected to bring a passion and curiosity for research, a strong work ethic, creativity and independence. Research experience, not necessarily in palaeontology, is required; publications are desirable. A background in statistics and scripting are desirable; non-academic work experience and interests are a plus.