NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biology FY 2016

Donihue Colin M, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biology for FY 2016, Research Using Biological Collections. The fellowship supports a research and training plan for the Fellow to take transformative approaches to grand challenges in biology that employ biological collections in highly innovative ways. The title of the research plan for this fellowship to Colin Donihue is "Human-driven evolution of European lizards." The host institution for this fellowship is Harvard University, and the sponsoring scientist is Dr. Jonathan Losos. The research investigates whether and how human-caused land use change has instigated evolutionary changes in the morphology of 15 European lizard species that are known to live within human-built environments. Humans have been transforming landscapes for centuries. Some species are capable of rapidly adapting to human-wrought changes, while others are not. Understanding the capacity to adapt would inform fundamental questions in evolution and shape future conservation action. Using lizard specimens collected over the last 150 years, and archaeological remains deposited over the past 10,000 years (concurrent with humans? expansion through Europe) the Fellow is comparing lizards spatially, temporally, and phylogenetically to understand the extent to which they have adapted to human land use. The Fellow is producing the first cataloguing of a large collection of lizard remains from archaeological sites in Europe, creating an extensive database of 3D scans of specimens and archaeological material, and providing new insight into the predictability of human-driven evolution. The Fellow is receiving training in the latest approaches to morphological analyses, including tomographic analysis, virtual dissections, and cutting-edge micro-CT scans. The Fellow is developing collaborations with European scientists, training and mentoring high school and undergraduate students from underrepresented groups in the U.S, and developing educational outreach material for a broad audience. The project culminates in an interactive web map showing human land use through time in Europe paired with interactive 3D scans of lizards from different time periods and contexts, which will engage the public and serve as a valuable resource for middle and high school science classrooms.