Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190101052

Funded Activity Summary

All you can eat: evolution of feeding in the largest animals on Earth. This project aims to establish how Baleen whales, the largest animals on Earth and major ecosystem engineers, evolved their signature filter-feeding strategy. Unlike other mammals, whales are toothless, and instead use a keratinous, comb-like sieve to filter vast amounts of small prey from seawater. Various approaches, including biomechanics, three-dimensional imaging, geochemistry and quantitative palaeobiology will unravel how and when filter feeding emerged, how it diversified over time, and whether its evolution correlated with past environmental change. The project is expected to reveal clues on how whales became one of the greatest ecological actors in the sea, and will benefit conservation by providing a glimpse into their future.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-07-2019

End Date: 31-12-2019

Funding Scheme: Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

Funding Amount: $372,959.00

Funder: Australian Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis | Animal Structure and Function | Geology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity |

Other Keywords

Animal Structure and Function | Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences | Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences | Geology | Marine Flora, Fauna and Biodiversity | Palaeontology (incl. Palynology) | Phylogeny and Comparative Analysis

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