The origin and diversification of Madagacar’s endemic rodent radiation

About the Project

Madagascar supports a unique and diverse radiation of rodents, comprising ~30 described living and recently extinct species classified in the subfamily Nesomyinae. They represent one of four major extant terrestrial mammal radiations in Madagascar (together with tenrecs, lemurs, and Madgascan carnivorans), and collectively span a range of body sizes, diets and locomotor modes, from small tree-climbing species to rabbit-like hoppers. Nesomyinae is part of the broader family Nesomyidae, which includes a further five extant subfamilies found in mainland Africa. There is also an extensive fossil record of African rodents, including possible relatives of modern nesomyids, some of which are known from well-preserved skeletal material. The precise relationship of these fossils to modern nesomyids is unclear, and so fundamental questions regarding the origin and diversification of Madagascan nesomyines remain unanswered, notably the number and timing of dispersals by rodents between Africa and Madagascar.

The origin and diversification of the Madagascan biota remains a topic of intensive research, and so there is obvious scope for an integrated macroevolutionary study of nesomyids, which i) attempts to resolve the phylogeny of modern and fossil nesomyids using combined molecular and morphological data, and ii) uses this phylogeny to explore the diversification of this fascinating group. Depending on the student’s interests, the project could focus on taxonomy and systematics, trait evolution, geometric morphometrics, and/or phylogenetic methods.

Morphological data will be obtained from firsthand examination of extant and fossil specimens in UK and international museums and from 3D scan data in online databases, and will be combined with existing molecular datasets. Training will be provided in methods for combined phylogenetic analyses of fossil and modern taxa (including molecular data) and inference of divergence times, analysis of 3D data, and phylogenetic comparative methods.

Besides this project, I would welcome applications from prospective PhD and Masters students interested in vertebrate evolution, and I will also consider applications in more general aspects of evolutionary biology, particularly those that concern the use of phylogenies for understanding evolutionary patterns and processes.