Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/C511256/1
The development and evolution of early metazoans: uncovering and interpreting the fossil record of embryonic development.
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor PCJ Donoghue, University of Bristol, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- University of Bristol, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Science Topics:
- Palaeobiology
- Abstract:
- Embryology, the study of development, is pivotal to unravelling the evolutionary history of animals, and how changes to patterns of development have produced the branching events in the Tree of Life. Palaeontology can provide the only tests of such hypotheses but has been silent in such debates because of a dearth of developmental data preserved in the fossil record. We have identified a large number of new sites of exceptional preservation in China and North America, contemporaneous with the establishment of animal phyla, that yield fossil eggs, embryos, larvae and associated adults, and provide an opportunity to test hypotheses concerning the role of development in evolution. This is because the fossils are geologically early, rather than merely primitive, and because the developmental sequences include sufficiently late stage embryos whose phylogenetic affinity and, thus, evolutionary significance, can be established. Interpretation will be aided by analysis using microCT, preliminary attempts at which have revealed preservation of internal cell boundaries and body organs, and by experiments on embryos of extant organisms that are designed to uncover the effect that variations in phylogenetic affinity, life history strategy and developmental stage have upon preservation potential. Integrated in phylogenetic context with embryological data from living organisms the results of this research will provide direct insight into the role of development in one of the most vexing questions of recent time: the origin of animal bodyplans.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/C511256/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Standard Grants Pre FEC
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Standard Grant
This grant award has a total value of £206,016
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Staff | Total - T&S | Total - Other Costs | Total - Equipment | Total - Indirect Costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £94,345 | £19,669 | £25,079 | £23,526 | £43,398 |
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