ERC Consolidator Grant · 2023
How to make a limb: a new insight using three-dimensional synchrotron palaeohistology
Tetrapods, i.e. four-limbed animals, are the only backboned animals to have truly conquered the land, and have achieved worldwide distribution in a wide range of environments. Several fish groups have attempted to colonise terrestrial habitats (e.g. mudskippers among ray-finned fish; lungfish among lobe-finned fish) but only tetrapods were able to initiate a large-scale radiation. What is the key to this success? Our limb skeletons have obviously played a crucial part, by allowing us to walk and support our weight outside of the water, but that is not their only function. For example, at some point during the early evolution of tetrapods, the haematopoietic (blood cell-producing) tissue…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.