Building giants: the origins of extreme biology in baleen whales. Baleen whales are unlike any other animal. They have evolved unparalleled specialisations for feeding, hearing, smell, cognition and – above all – the largest ever body size. These extreme features underlie the unmatched dominance of baleen whales in today's oceans. The origins of these key adaptations required major changes in the anatomy and function of the skull and teeth. However, exactly how and when the extreme innovations o ....Building giants: the origins of extreme biology in baleen whales. Baleen whales are unlike any other animal. They have evolved unparalleled specialisations for feeding, hearing, smell, cognition and – above all – the largest ever body size. These extreme features underlie the unmatched dominance of baleen whales in today's oceans. The origins of these key adaptations required major changes in the anatomy and function of the skull and teeth. However, exactly how and when the extreme innovations of baleen whales began remains an outstanding question in animal biology. This proposal aims to combine exceptional Australian fossils with recent advances in 3D imaging, biomechanics, and evolutionary analysis to discover how the secrets to the success of baleen whales first evolved.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130100467
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,823.00
Summary
Limbs and wings: reconstructing Australian environmental change through innovative analysis of ancient mammal skeletons. An animal's skeleton is the product of a complex relationship between its habits, habitat and evolutionary history. This project uses a vast resource of World Heritage fossil skeletons from Riversleigh to determine how behaviour and ecology of Australia's mammals have changed over the last 25 million years and will need to adapt in the future.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100862
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$338,110.00
Summary
The evolution of mammalian developmental patterns in deep time. Why are some groups of marsupials more morphologically diverse than others? The patterns and processes occurring over development shape adult variability, and yet these remain poorly understood and unknown across marsupials. This significantly limits understanding of how marsupial diversity has evolved. This project aims to use novel analytical methods to provide the first empirical data on how marsupials grow, and how those pattern ....The evolution of mammalian developmental patterns in deep time. Why are some groups of marsupials more morphologically diverse than others? The patterns and processes occurring over development shape adult variability, and yet these remain poorly understood and unknown across marsupials. This significantly limits understanding of how marsupial diversity has evolved. This project aims to use novel analytical methods to provide the first empirical data on how marsupials grow, and how those patterns have evolved over time. In doing so it will yield fundamental insight into why Australia's marsupials are so diverse, and how morphological traits interact over development to shape this diversity; this knowledge is key to understanding how morphological diversity is generated and what determines how species evolve.Read moreRead less