Evolution of parental care
We are advertising a cluster of projects on the evolution of parental care funded by University of Hull including two PhD studentships and a postdoctoral position supervised
by Drs Isabella Capellini, Lesley Morrell and James Gilbert. For
details about the postdoctoral position, soon to be open, please
contact I.Capellini@hull.ac.uk.
There
are astonishing differences in whether, how, and for how long, animals
care for their offspring. In most species, such as many marine fishes,
parents abandon their fertilized eggs, which are mostly eaten by
predators. By contrast, parents of other species, as in humans, provide
protection and substantial amount of resources to their eggs or
offspring.
To be considered for the shortlist, interested applicants are strongly advised to contact the relevant lead supervisor well in advance of application. Please enclose a CV and a brief explanation of why this position interests you, and any questions you have. Applicants should have at
least a 2.1 undergraduate degree in Biology, Ecology, or related
discipline, together with relevant research experience. A 1st class
undergraduate degree or Masters level qualification are anticipated.
PhD 1: Evolution of parents feeding offspring
Lead Supervisor: Dr James Gilbert, james.gilbert@hull.ac.uk
Parental
feeding is rare among animals. The studentship will focus on this
crucial but little-understood behaviour. Insects are excellent for
asking evolutionary questions about parental care: strategies are
diverse, and often differ among related species. The student will first
complete and publish a large reproductive trait database for insects,
begun by Dr Gilbert, and second, in a broad comparative analysis across
many species, address the following questions: (1) What ecological
factors favour the evolution and/or maintenance of parental
provisioning? Does provisioning evolve with harsh or stable
environments; scarce, specialized resources; or predation? Is loss of
offspring self-sufficiency a key precondition for the evolution of
parental provisioning? (2) What are the evolutionary consequences of a
food-provisioning strategy? Is optional (or partial) food provisioning
behaviour inherently unstable? The project will deepen our understanding
of an extremely important group, insects, and provides key comparisons
not available in groups like mammals who uniformly feed offspring.
Further requirements: experience
essential with at least one out of: database management, phylogenies,
insect behaviour studies; two or more desirable. Experience with R
desirable.
How to apply: Application is online at the following link:
PhD 2. Laterality and parental care in fish.
Lead Supervisor: Dr Lesley Morrell, l.morrell@hull.ac.uk
Long
thought to be unique to humans, lateralisation (or handedness) is now
recognised as widespread in vertebrates. Animals show lateralisation in a
wide range of organs and behaviours, and it is hypothesised that
cerebral lateralisation can enhance cognitive abilities, particularly
through the ability to attend to multiple tasks at one time
(multitasking). For fish, this might be the ability to simultaneously
forage and remain vigilant for predators, for example. In this project,
we will investigate the potential link between lateralisation, parental
care and other ecological factors in fish. More specifically, the
project seeks to address the following questions: 1) Within and across
species, are individuals that provide care more likely to be lateralised
than individuals that do not? 2) How does laterality link to the
ability to multitask in caring and non-caring situations? 3) How do
environmental conditions shape laterality, and how does this link to the
ability to multitask? Experimental work on the behaviour of fish in the
University’s aquarium facilities will be a key component of this
project.
Further requirements: essential
to the project are good skills and experience with experimental work,
preferentially in behavioural ecology and/or with fish; experience with R
desirable.
How to apply: Application is online at the following link:
Positions will start on the 25th September 2017. Full-time
UK/EU PhD Scholarships will include fees at the ‘home/EU’ student rate
and maintenance (£14,121 in 2016/17) for three years, depending on
satisfactory progress. Full-time International Fee PhD Studentships will
include full fees at the International student rate for three years,
dependent on satisfactory progress.