Metamorphosis is one of the most fascinating phenomena in the animal kingdom, implying an abrupt change in morphology and ecology during the lifetime of an individual transforming it from a larva into an adult. Metamorphosis can be thought of as a second birth for an animal, emerging as a completely different organism, despite being produced from the same genetic material. From butterflies to frogs, almost all the successful and speciose lineages of animals are metamorphic, suggesting that metamorphosis may be an important driver of biodiversity. At the time of the sixth mass extinction, where one-fifth of living species are threatened, understanding whether development can be a driver of morphological and functional diversity, and whether it may be advantageous in allowing populations to adapt rapidly to changing environments is of prime importance. The goal of META-MORPHOSIS is to test the impact of metamorphosis on morphological diversification by disentangling the factors (developmental, functional, and ecological) shaping morphological diversity. I aim to 1) identify the patterns of morphological and functional variation depending on developmental strategies across species throughout ontogeny; 2) shed light on the origin and evolution of metamorphosis using the fossil record; 3) understand how metamorphosis fosters diversity and to quantify its impact on the generation of biodiversity. To do so, I will study salamander species with different developmental strategies and ecologies throughout ontogeny using a combination of state-of-the-art approaches, including phenomics (geometric morphometrics), analyses of function (feeding kinematics and forces), phylogenetic comparative methods, development, paleontology and methods exploring diversification. META-MORPHOSIS will produce an unprecedented data set and analyses of diversification considering for the first time how morpho-functional, developmental, and ecological factors shape biodiversity through deep-time.

Culture is highly relevant for human evolution but whether animal culture can be an evolutionary force that promotes speciation is an open and highly contested issue. While culturally induced song divergence can be correlated with increased speciation rates in songbirds, it is hard to resolve whether cultural differences are promoting speciation or vice versa. Studying ring species is a perfect solution for this problem since they illustrate divergence in space instead of time, thus allowing us to determine whether cultural differences are causes or consequences of speciation. A ring species originates from a population that expands around an uninhabitable barrier and gradually diverges until the terminal forms are reproductively isolated upon secondary contact. We will study whether culturally induced song divergence accelerates speciation in the bat Saccopteryx bilineata, the first known mammalian ring species. Cultural differences between S. bilineata populations are manifested in distinct and temporally stable song dialects which juvenile males learn from adults. First, we will study song divergence around the ring and the relative contribution of song dialects to reproductive isolation of the co-occurring terminal forms of the ring. Second, we will study potential genetic predispositions for learning specific song dialects and investigate neurogenetic mechanisms involved in mammalian song learning. Third, we will reconstruct the history, evolutionary patterns and processes of speciation in a ring using a genomic approach in S. bilineata and its sympatric sister species. This comparative approach will allow us to unravel factors involved in the rapid divergence of S. bilineata on a small spatial scale. In synthesis, we will be able to determine whether sexually selected, culturally transmitted traits can accelerate speciation and elucidate the role of culture as an evolutionary force.

Throughout Earth’s history our planet was subject to cosmic tempers that occasionally impacted global climate and biological evolution but almost always left their traces behind. Individual large impactors leave craters as footprints. Cosmic events in our Solar System, such as asteroid collisions or cometary sublimation, eject vast amounts of interplanetary dust particles, which also encounter Earth, but more quietly. They become part of sedimentary records in the form of micrometeorites or dispersed as atoms if evaporated during atmospheric entry. Furthermore, within our solar neighbourhood (50-150 pc) tens of star explosions, i.e., supernovae, occurred within the last >10 Myr. Their expanding shock fronts containing interstellar dust swept across our Solar System and a small but measurable fraction made its way to Earth. The overarching goal of NoSHADE is to collect traces of cosmic dust from Atacama Desert sedimentary records reaching back >10 Myr and link them to specific cosmic events. The main cosmic traces to be investigated are micrometeorites as well as radionuclides derived from interplanetary and interstellar dust (10Be, 26Al, 53Mn, 60Fe), which will be measured using the most advanced accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facilities available worldwide. Such an unprecedented >10 Myr-spanning record of multiple cosmic tracers will allow NoSHADE to shed light on two central and pressing questions: What was the quantity, timing, location, and type of supernovae having occurred in our solar neighbourhood? Which were the major dust-producing events and processes having taken place in our Solar System? The answers to these questions are not only fascinating by themselves and tell us what kind of dust and debris Earth encountered in space over the past Myr, but they will also allow to clarify if cosmic tempers during the last >10 Myr had an impact on Earth’s history and potentially altered the climate or the path of biological evolution.

The CS-SDG project will lead to the organization of a citizen science conference which will bring together and showcase impactful citizen science initiatives, provide policy input to ongoing European developments and inspire the upcoming ten years of citizen science initiatives. CS-SDG will address this challenge by focusing on citizen science as a relevant approach to contributing to Global Challenges and industrial competitiveness in Horizon Europe, to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and to building upon ongoing initiatives in the Open Science strategy, the European Research Area (ERA) and Horizon 2020. The “A citizen science decade (2020-2030) in support to the Sustainable Development Goals” conference will represent a crucial opportunity to bring together lessons learnt from initiatives at global, national, regional and grassroots level, to scale up their impacts, address existing challenges and harness the potential of citizen science towards achieving the SDGs. One of the main conference outcomes will be a declaration and recommendations, gathering input in a collaborative way from conference participants and selected experts, focusing on the future of citizen science and its implementation in future funding programmes. CS-SDG will organise a conference gathering policy-makers and citizen science projects – from all parts of the world, from local to global scales, and both community-led and academic-led – to build the future of citizen science policy-making. The conference will be an opportunity to showcase the diversity of citizen science projects, and a forum for reflection and perspective, with transversal sessions to define together the latest developments, impacts, benefits and challenges of citizen science, as well as a global Citizen Science Festival. Most importantly, collaborative sessions will draw recommendations to feed in strategic policy recommendations for the decade 2020-2030.

This research project will study the formation of large meteorite impact craters, characterized by central peaks or rings, flat floors and terraced walls. The complex morphology results from the gravity driven collapse of a much deeper and narrower transient cavity. Standard material models fail to explain such a collapse and specific temporary weakening mechanisms have been proposed. The most successful approach, the Acoustic Fluidization (AF) model, relies on the temporary softening of heavily fractured target rocks by means of an acoustic field in the wake of an expanding shock wave originated upon impact. The project aims to (i) constrain the mechanics of large crater collapse, (ii) constrain AF parameters and enhance AF implementation into simulation software (iSALE), (iii) test the revised AF model with planetary case studies. These objectives will be achieved through a multidisciplinary approach: (1) Small-scale impact experiments will use a target of granular material, which will be acoustically fluidized by an external source to mimic the fluid-like rheology of planetary targets during collapse; (2) Numerical models of complex crater formation, which require the AF parameters to be constrained, will be calibrated and validated against experiments and up-scaled to dimensions of natural craters. The originality lies in combining the systematic laboratory experiments with numerical simulations to improve a widely used AF model. The fulfilment of the project will be ensured by the host and partner institutes, and the planned training activities (laboratory and modelling techniques). The results will be disseminated to the scientific community through peer-reviewed papers and conference contributions. The project will foster excellence in Europe by establishing a network of collaborations that will promote high-quality research, inspire the next generation of planetary scientists, and encourage research in interdisciplinary fields like Solar System exploration.