Shaping the mammalian skull: modeling how species-specific shape of skeletal elements is generated during development and during evolution

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Developmental variation is one of the primary pathways of phenotypic diversification of species, but how shape is generated during development remains unresolved. In this project we will quantify the shape of specific bones and cartilages that make up the skull and facial skeleton through development and use mathematical models and morphometrics to try to predict how the unique faces observed in many different species of mammals evolved. The project combines developmental genetics (transgenic mice) with high-density imaging, morphometrics, and modeling and partners a developmental biologist (Prof Abigail Tucker) with a morphometrician and quantitative paleobiologist (Prof Anjali Goswami).