EVOTOOLS · EVOlutionary Trends in mOrphOLogical diverSity: new comparative tools for high-dimensional data
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2018-10-01 → 2020-09-30
- EU contribution
- €183,455
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF-EF-ST
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
EVOlutionary Trends in mOrphOLogical diverSity: new comparative tools for high-dimensional data
The availability of high-quality morphometric data has exploded in the past few years thanks to the increased development and availability of 3D imaging techniques (such as CT-scans). These new datasets offer a unique opportunity to better characterize and understand how phenotypic diversity has evolved in responses to changes in climates, environments and species ecology through time. However, the high dimensionality of these datasets (they are often described by a larger number of features/traits than species), prevents the use of state-of-the-art modelling and statistical phylogenetic techniques such as maximum likelihood traditionally used. The development of methods that allow to model and to handle these bigdata in a robust statistical framework is extremely important to understand how a major part of the biodiversity linked to the functioning of species in ecosystems (their morphology) has evolved. For instance, how species have evolved during past climatic changes? How their responses were related to their ecology? How subtle variations in morphology can be linked to various biological factors (ecology, development, genetic diversity)? The overall objectives of EVOTOOLS were then to (i) develop new phylogenetic comparative methods capable of handling high-dimensional datasets such as from 3D morphometrics, (ii) disseminate these new developments to the scientific community through implementations in free and open-source software, and (iii) apply them on comprehensive empirical datasets across tetrapods that are housed by the host institution. All together, these research objectives have the potential to shed light on major and still open questions in Evolutionary Biology.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
In almost 525 million years, the vertebrates have evolved a vast diversity of morphologies. Yet, understanding how these morphological changes accrue over large (macroevolutionary) time scales is still poorly known. Research into morphological evolution has so far either focused on a handful of today’s successful clades, therefore omitting a major part of the diversity represented in the fossil record, or substituted the complex multi-dimensions of organismal form for simple univariate measures such as body-size. Given that such traits may relate to various aspects of species ecology and life history, it is difficult to identify the environmental, functional, genetic or development factors that drive the evolution of this diversity. Hence, a comprehensive, multivariate characterization of morphology across both fossil and extant species is hugely needed for understanding the evolution of vertebrate diversity but is currently limited by data availability and methodological shortcomings. In this project I will use newly available multivariate, high-quality, datasets of shape (CT and surface scans, 3-D surface morphometrics) for an unprecedented sample of both fossil and extant terrestrial vertebrates and develop new multivariate phylogenetic comparative methods to study the evolution of morphological diversity. Through the EVOTOOLS project, I will provide to the other researchers the phylogenetic comparative toolkit for studying modern, high-dimensional 3-D data and address long-standing questions regarding species evolutionary responses to past environmental and climatic changes. In addition, the project will benefit from the expertise of the NHM staff and a highly respected expert in morphometric studies to characterize the evolution of morphology. The candidate will learn and develop cutting-edge methods, hone his skills for managing data, and strengthen experience with scientific presentations, writing, and publishing.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM · LondonCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union