Research assistant (PhD student) (f/m/d)

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The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) is an excellent and integrated research museum of the Leibniz Association with an international reputation and globally connected research infrastructure. MfN is active in three closely interlinked fields: collection-based research, collection development, and research-based public and educational outreach. Over the next ten years, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin will build up a science campus for nature and society in the centre of Berlin as science hub, together with the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. New laboratories and workplaces for cutting-edge research will be established. One of the world's most comprehensive natural history collections with over 30 million objects will be housed in state of the art buildings as well as fully digitized. The implementation of the so-called Zukunftsplan (future plan), funded with a total of 660 million euros from the Federal Government and the State of Berlin, strongly relies on interdisciplinary national and international partners. Become part of our team

Research assistant (PhD student) (f/m/d)

in the DFG project „Secondary adaptation to aquatic life: an integrative morphofunctional analysis in Cetartiodactyla“

Work schedule: Part time 75% (equivalent to 29 hours and 33 minutes per week)

Duration: As of 1.9.2022 for a period of 36 months

Salary level: E 13 TV-L

Code: 24/2022

Project Description:

Lifestyle transitions are major evolutionary events often reflected by extreme morphological modifications. One particularly obvious example is the secondary adaptation of whales to an aquatic lifestyle. Toothed and baleen whales (Cetacea) are included in the Cetartiodactyla clade with even-toed ungulates (“Artiodactyla”). Their early fossil record documents species within the paraphyletic “Archaeoceti” that are crucial to understand this major evolutionary transition from the terrestrial to the aquatic environment. Members of the earliest known family, the Pakicetidae, were mostly terrestrial with some adaptations to water. They lived during the early Eocene (ca. 50 million years ago). And it is mostly during the middle to late Eocene when the quadrupedal whales “Protocetidae” diversified. They represent a key stage of cetacean locomotor evolution, displaying swimming abilities close to modern otters. This project will focus in particular on a new middle Eocene protocetid from Peru, with exceptionally well-preserved postcranial elements, Peregocetus pacificus. Its postcranial gross morphology and microanatomy will be thoroughly described – combining external morphology observation and measurements to computed tomography data – and compared with other extinct and extant mammals to interpret the function of key anatomical traits. Variables of importance for the land-to-water transition will be further studied with phylogenetic comparative methods. This will involve reconstructing the most likely ancestral states for these variables and mapping the evolution of these aquatic adaptations on the phylogeny of cetartiodactyls. We will identify the most likely evolutionary model that led extinct whales to an aquatic lifestyle by means of evolutionary model comparison. Finally, a multivariate dataset will be used in a phylogenetically informed discriminant analysis to reconstruct the locomotion mode of Peregocetus pacificus and other extinct cetaceans.

Responsibilities:

• Identification of evolutionary patterns associated with cetacean lifestyle and adaptation to the aquatic environment, with a focus on „Protocetidae“
• Integrative functional morphological analysis of the postcranial skeleton
• Modelling and explaining the evolution of the Cetartiodactyla
• Phylogeny-based discriminant analysis to reconstruct the locomotion mode of fossil cetaceans
• Publication of results (if indicated in scientific journals, presentation at congresses, symposia, etc.)

Requirements:

• University degree in biological or earth sciences (Master‘s)
• Expertise in mammalian palaeontology, especially palaeocetology
• Advanced knowledge of mammalian functional anatomy, myology and bone microanatomy
• Understanding of secondary aquatic adaptations of amniotes
• Experience with surface scanning
• Basic knowledge of software for phylogenetic analyses and evolutionary modelling would be desirable
• Very good knowledge of English

Special Notes:

In support of equal rights applications from qualified women are particularly welcome. Handicapped individuals will be given preference in cases of identical qualifications.

We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates) by 15.5.2022, preferably via our online application portal .

For information on the application procedure, please contact recruiting(at)mfn.berlin .

Further Informations

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Information about the handling of applicant data at the MfN ( in German) and Privacy policy for the MfN website (in German)

Family Policy:

The Museum für Naturkunde has set itself the goal of promoting a work-life balance and has been awarded the certificate berufundfamilie audit of berufundfamilie gGmbH - an initiative of the Hertie Foundation.

Further information can be found under https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/uber-uns/jobs-und-karriere/arbeiten-am-museum-fur-naturkunde/reconciling-work-and-family-life-audit .

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