Brains, snakes & fossils! Investigating the brain-endocast relationship in snakes, to infer ecology of ‘transitional’ fossil forms

Project description

The origin of snakes is a long-standing evolutionary controversy. Snakes are an ecologically successful group that are strikingly different to their closest relatives, lizards. An ancestral ecological transition is thought to have catalyzed serpent evolution with studies on snake ears and eyes showing an ancient ‘sensory bottleneck’ with contrasting evidence that the ancestor of snakes transitioned to either burrowing or aquatic habits. Because the brain receives input from the senses and ultimately controls all behaviour, studying brain shape can uncover species’ ecology. Snakes also have a highly ossified braincase that closely envelopes the entire brain, allowing comparisons of extant and fossil taxa, including the including ‘transitional’ limbed snake from the Cretaceous Dinilysia. This project will assess how brain shape is related to braincase (endocast) shape and thus to ecology in snakes, allowing us to infer the controversial ecology of extinct snakes. Depending on the student’s interests, they will gain skills in a selection of the following areas: * anatomy * phylogenetic comparative analyses * morphometrics * microCT scanning * paleontology and zoology

Co-supervisors

Jenna Crowe Riddell (University of Adelaide)

Note: You need to register interest in projects from different supervisors (not a number of projects with the one supervisor).
You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.