Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/W00786X/1
The dawn of the Phanerozoic: non-bilaterian evolution and the nature of the Cambrian Explosion
Fellowship Award
- Fellow:
- Dr F Dunn, University of Oxford, Museum of Natural History
- Grant held at:
- University of Oxford, Museum of Natural History
- Science Area:
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Evolution
- Fossil record
- Marine ecosystems
- Molecular clocks
- Palaeozoic
- Precambrian
- Palaeobiology
- Evolutionary history
- Evolutionary rates
- Extinct species
- Fossil analysis
- Molecular clock
- Museum collections
- Phylogenetics
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Animal systematics
- Evolution & populations
- Abstract:
- The rise of the animals was a profound transition in the History of Life; for the first-time organisms were able to engineer the environment around them, altering geochemical cycles, building complex ecosystems and diversifying into myriad forms. However, the rise of the animals is also one of the most controversial episodes in Earth History. Recognisable animals appear in the fossil record in great number during the Cambrian Period - the so-called 'Cambrian Explosion', but Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection demands a longer evolutionary history of animals, stretching deep into the Precambrian (between 4,000-539 million years ago). Indeed, data from DNA also suggests a deep Precambrian root for the animals and this mismatch gets larger the closer we go to the root of the animal tree, for example, the mismatch between genetic estimates for the origin of sponges and the accepted fossil record of that group is on the order of hundreds of millions of years. I intend to better constrain the origin and diversification of animals by studying these particularly ancient lineages, like sponges. Most studies looking at this question tend to focus on bilaterian animals - animals with left-right symmetry - but the older non-bilaterian lineages which, by virtue of their greater age are likely to have a more protracted fossil record have been understudied. This proposal seeks to redress the balance by achieving three distinct research objectives: 1) The Ediacaran (latest Precambrian) macrobiota, which appear in the fossil record around 570 million years ago are a group of organisms with long-extinct bodyplans but that increasing evidence is showing that at least some of which represent the remains of ancient non-bilaterian animals. Because of their strange anatomies they are not often included in studies on the early evolutionary history of the animals and so remain something of an elephant-in-the-room. I intend to study the youngest of the Ediacaran macrobiota - the erniettomorphs - which are a group of organisms made up of serially-repeated tubes - and are amongst the most enigmatic, with no consensus about what they were or, indeed, were not. I will study their affinities by analysing how these organisms grew and developed, using a methodology I have previously designed. I will also establish the evolutionary trajectory of the erniettomorphs as relating to other animals (if appropriate) through a combination of field work and studying museum collections in order to work out when they stopped innovating (varying their bodyplans) and when they went extinct. 2) Sponges are often considered to be the most ancient animal lineage, but the oldest widely accepted sponge body fossils are only Cambrian in age. There are, however, a number of putative Ediacaran sponges which may go some way to extend the fossil record more in line with molecular expectations. I will re-examine the morphology of these fossils using large photo datasets and new and unpublished field specimens to assess whether they likely represent ancient sponges. I will also use computational fluid dynamics - a technique which models fluid flow around organisms - to assess whether the anatomy of these fossils allowed them to function as living sponges do. If any of these fossils are likely to be ancient sponges, I will include them in a morphological phylogenetic analysis to understand the sponge tree of life, alongside other, younger sponge fossils. I will then integrate this anatomical and fossil-age data with DNA data to establish the most rigorous estimate of the age of the sponges. 3) I will integrate the above data with previously collected data on other members of the Ediacaran macrobiota and cnidarians (the group containing anemones, corals and jellyfish) to ask whether the rate of anatomical change in the non-bilaterian animals was indeed faster in the late Precambrian (Ediacaran) or conforms to the expectations of the Cambrian Explosion hypothesis.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/W00786X/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Event/Action
- Scheme:
- Research Fellowship
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- IRF
This fellowship award has a total value of £605,621
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Other Costs | Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff | DI - T&S | DA - Other Directly Allocated |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| £32,155 | £232,606 | £41,284 | £245,308 | £49,358 | £4,911 |
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