Project EDDi (Horizon 2020)

EDDi – Evolutionary Dissection of Dinosaurs

Funding

Financial support for this project comes from a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Individual Fellowship part of Horizon 2020, the EU’s framework programme for research and innovation. Host is the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (Germany).

Background

The vertebral column is a defining feature and a vital body part of vertebrate animals. It is composed of several units – the vertebrae – that are morphologically and functionally regionalized from head to tail. The cervical vertebral region or neck, in particular, has intrigued researchers for centuries because it is highly variable in vertebral number and shape. There are the relatively short and massive neck of crocodiles, the highly mobile and slender neck of swans or the extremely long and gigantic neck in sauropodomorph dinosaurs.

Project description

To put it in a nutshell, the EU-funded project EDDi project looks at three aspects involved in the evolution of the vertebral column in archosaurs (i.e., crocodilians, birds and extinct dinosaurs). Morphometric analyses allow us to quantify the morphology of the bones in living and fossil taxa. Developmental studies provide new insights into the morphogenesis of the vertebral column. And anatomical work in combination with state-of-the-art network approaches enables us reveal the evolutionary modifications of the vertebral column in deep time and to better understand the adaptability of archosaurs.

Activities

March 2021

• Symposium on „Macroevolution of form and function in the mammalian locomotor system: new tools, new insights?“ organized by Prof. John Nyakatura (Humboldt-Universität Berlin)

February 2021

• Symposium proposal for virtual EAVP conference 2021 (European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists)
  
• Paleo-Bioinspiration Workshop organized by the Natural History Museum (MNHN) in Paris

January 2021

• Publication on the evolution of the long neck in the journal Evolution and MorphoMuseumM.
• Advanced training: „Konfliktlösung und Mediation! Konflikte konstruktiv meistern. – Teil 2“ by the Center for Leadership and People Management at LMU Munich.
• Conference contribution: Oral presentation at SIBC 2021.
• Advanced training: „Konfliktlösung und Mediation! Konflikte konstruktiv meistern. – Teil 1“ by the Center for Leadership and People Management at LMU Munich.

December 2021

• Invited talk at ERC GRAVIBONE research group meeting (GRAVIBONE blog)
• Advanced training: „Überzeugt! Erfolgreich verhandeln mit Vorgesetzten und Kolleg*innen“ by the Center for Leadership and People Management at LMU Munich.
• Start of project. Administration.

Publications

in progress

Müller M A, Merten L, Böhmer C and Nyakatura J A (2021). Pushing the boundary? Testing the ‚functional elongation hypothesis‘ in the giraffe’s neck. Evolution. DOI: 10.1111/evo.14171 [PDF] (Open Access)

Müller M A, Merten L, Böhmer C and Nyakatura J A (2021). Pushing the boundary? Testing the ‚functional elongation hypothesis‘ in the giraffe’s neck. MorphoMuseum
DOI: 10.18563/journal.m3.129 [PDF] (Open Access)

Find the full list of publications [here].