Postdoctoral Fellow

Cetartiodactyl evolution: understanding the evolutionary transition from the terrestrial to the aquatic biome

PI(s): Samantha Price
Start Date: 1-Nov-2005
End Date: 31-Oct-2008
Keywords: life histories, morphology, development, physiology, adaptive radiation

The Cetartiodactyla is a newly recognized mammalian order, which contains the terrestrial even-toed hoofed mammals (artiodactyls) and the fully aquatic whales (cetaceans). The aim of my project is to understand whether the morphological, developmental and physiological changes required to transition from fully terrestrial to obligately aquatic, which the whales did rapidly in 8-10 million years during the Eocene, have lead to fundamental differences between cetacean and artiodactyl biology, socioecology and life history evolution. The roles that these traits play in the rapid adaptive radiation of the cetaceans within the aquatic biome and the Pecora within the terrestrial biome will be explored and compared across the terrestrial and aquatic boundary.

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PublicationsProposals and Grants
  • Price and Zane (2007) NESCent informatics white paper: "Comparative methods in R hackathon"
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