GIUV2023-574
Our research group focuses on elucidating major evolutionary transitions, their causes and consequences, integrating evidence from living organisms and the fossil record through the joint application of an array of state-of-the-art techniques in palaeobiology, ecology, evolution and biomechanics.Early vertebrate evolution. Vertebrates, our own evolutionary lineage, constitute one of the most diversified and successful groups of animals. Debate over the origin and evolution of vertebrate bodyplan has occupied biologists and palaeontologists alike for centuries but discussions around this topic have been hindered because living vertebrates are unrepresentative of the ancestral lineages in which the bodyplan was established. The fossil record is therefore crucial to inform on early vertebrate evolution by revealing the timing and tempo of character acquisition and testing hypotheses on the driving factors. We are interested in elucidating the scenarios in which the major groups of vertebrates emerged and to shed light onto the underlying selective forces that drove the main evolutionary transitions of the group.Evolution of flight in pollinators. Major modern groups of...Our research group focuses on elucidating major evolutionary transitions, their causes and consequences, integrating evidence from living organisms and the fossil record through the joint application of an array of state-of-the-art techniques in palaeobiology, ecology, evolution and biomechanics.Early vertebrate evolution. Vertebrates, our own evolutionary lineage, constitute one of the most diversified and successful groups of animals. Debate over the origin and evolution of vertebrate bodyplan has occupied biologists and palaeontologists alike for centuries but discussions around this topic have been hindered because living vertebrates are unrepresentative of the ancestral lineages in which the bodyplan was established. The fossil record is therefore crucial to inform on early vertebrate evolution by revealing the timing and tempo of character acquisition and testing hypotheses on the driving factors. We are interested in elucidating the scenarios in which the major groups of vertebrates emerged and to shed light onto the underlying selective forces that drove the main evolutionary transitions of the group.Evolution of flight in pollinators. Major modern groups of flower-pollinating insects radiated synchronously to angiosperms in the mid-Cretaceous as a result of one the most formative episodes of coevolution in the history of life. Elucidation of the adaptations in modern groups of pollinators that underpinned this transition has been a central question to clarify the factors that underlid the establishment of the angiosperm-pollinator coevolutionary systems and prompted the rapid diversification and supremacy of the flowering plants. Flight performance of pollinators holds a high potential to impact plant-pollinator coevolutionary dynamics by directly affecting foraging efficiency, maneuverability, and plant community connectivity. We are interested in understanding which modifications in the locomotor system of pollinators occurred during this evolutionary transition.Animal terrestrialization. Constraining the timing and tempo of animal terrestrialization is a central question in evolutionary biology. However, the debate around this topic has been hampered because some of the groups that occupy key phylogenetic positions to comprehend this evolutionary transition are now extinct and have few or no ecological analogues in which to support reliable palaeoecological inferences. Computational techniques such as Finite Element Analyses or Computational Fluid Dynamics are essential modern methods for studying fossils, providing important functional information that resolves many palaeoecological questions in a quantitative, testable way. We are interested in applying these biomechanical approaches to illuminate our understanding on arthropod and vertebrate terrestrialization events.Body size evolution and thermophysiology. Body size is a critical biological trait for all organisms, determining different aspects of their physiology, anatomy, ecology, and life history. The influence of body size goes beyond the individual level, reaching multiple scales of organization and affecting the structure and dynamics of ecological networks, with implications for food web stability, the patterning of energy fluxes, and the responses to perturbations. For these reasons, the evolution of gigantism has long been a topic of considerable interest among biologists. We are interested in understanding the nexus between body size, (thermo)physiology, and ecology in a macroevolutionary scale employing isotopic data, modelling, and biomechanical approaches.The nature of organismal evolution. The discussion over the contingency vs. determinism in evolution is a long-standing debate in biological research. We are interested in testing competing hypotheses (contingency vs determinsm) on the nature of organismal evolution using marine tetrapods as parallel natural evolutionary experiments from which to derive general nomothetic principles.
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- Elucidating the scenarios in which the major groups of vertebrates emerged and to shed light onto the underlying selective forces.
- Understanding which modifications in the locomotor system of pollinators occurred during their coevolution with plants.
- Applying biomechanical approaches to illuminate our understanding on arthropod and vertebrate terrestrialization events.
- Understanding the nexus between body size, (thermo)physiology, and ecology in a macroevolutionary scale.
- Testing competing hypotheses on the nature of organismal evolution using marine tetrapods as parallel natural evolutionary experiments.
- Evolució de vertebrats primitius. Esclarecer los escenarios en los que surgieron los principales grupos de vertebrados y arrojar luz sobre las fuerzas selectivas subyacentes.
- Evolució del vol en pol·linitzadors. Comprender qué modificaciones en el sistema locomotor de los polinizadores se produjeron durante su coevolución con las plantas.
- Terrestrialització animal. Aplicación de enfoques biomecánicos para iluminar nuestra comprensión de los eventos de terrestrialización de artrópodos y vertebrados.
- Evolució de la mida corporal i termofisiologia. Comprender el nexo entre el tamaño del cuerpo, la (termo)fisiología y la ecología en una escala macroevolutiva.
- La naturalesa de l'evolució orgànica. Prueba de hipótesis contrapuestas sobre la naturaleza de la evolución de los organismos utilizando tetrápodos marinos como experimentos evolutivos naturales paralelos.
| Nom | Caràcter de la participació | Entitat | Descripció |
|---|---|---|---|
| Humberto Gracián Ferrón Jiménez | Director-a | UVEG-Valencia | Investigador-a en Formació Predoctoral FPU |
| Equip d'investigació | |||
| Antonio Ballell Mayoral | Col·laborador-a | GBR-UBristol | Investigador-a |
| Michael Benton | Col·laborador-a | GBR-UBristol | Investigador-a |
| Jack Cooper | Col·laborador-a | GBR-Uswansea | Estudiant-a de màster |
| Philip Conrad James Donoghue | Col·laborador-a | GBR-UBristol | Investigador-a |
| Zhikun Gai | Col·laborador-a | CHN-IVPP | Professor-a Titular d'Universitat |
| Madleen Grohganz | Col·laborador-a | GBR-UBristol | Estudiant-a de màster |
| Zerina Johanson | Col·laborador-a | UK-NHM | Investigador-a |
| Christian Klug | Col·laborador-a | CHE-UZurich | Investigador-a |
| Imran Rahman | Col·laborador-a | UK-NHM | Investigador-a |
| Emily Rayfield | Col·laborador-a | GBR-UBristol | Investigador-a |
| Robert Sansom | Col·laborador-a | UK-UM | Investigador-a |
| Susan Turner | Col·laborador-a | AUS-MQ | Investigador-a |
