Starting the MORPHOCOFE project !

The SCAR Lab is proud to share that our team member, Davide Tamagnini, has been awarded the BE-FOR-ERC grant by Sapienza University of Rome. This highly competitive grant supports research projects with exceptional scientific merit and a strong potential to secure an ERC Starting Grant in the short term.

The skull is a complex, multifunctional structure involved in feeding, protection and sensory perception. MORPHOCOFE uses it to explore how predators and their prey have shaped each other's evolution. The project focuses on Ferungulata (ungulates, pangolins and carnivorans), a group with a remarkable diversity of ecological, morphological and behavioural adaptations, which makes it ideal for studying predator-prey dynamics such as evolutionary arms races.

For the first time, herbivore-carnivore cranial coevolution will be tested within a morphodynamics-based framework. This approach considers morphological evolution as the result of four interacting factors: phylogeny, developmental constraints, environment and biomechanical function. Combining 3D geometric morphometrics, phylogenetic comparative methods and species distribution modelling on both living and extinct species, the project will look for selective optima, evolutionary trends such as convergence, and patterns of integration across the skull.

Stay tuned for more updates as MORPHOCOFE kicks off!