Exploring the origin of plant diversity: quantitative analysis of Devonian plant vascular tissues.
- Beschreibung
The most important features of vascular plant form, such as the first leaf, seed, tree, and deep-rooting systems, all first appeared during the adaptive radiation of plants onto dry land. This period of Earth's history (the Devonian, 420 to 360 million years ago) saw the evolution of numerous groups of ferns, lycophytes, and seed plants. This diversification of plant forms was paralleled by major anatomical innovations, such as the evolution of wood and the different architectures of primary vascular tissue.
Current research at the department aims to better understand the drivers of evolution of water-conducting tissues and has led to the development of a database containing numerous images of anatomically preserved fossils from the Devonian. In this Humboldt Reloaded project, students will participate in the wider research effort by 1) helping to build an intelligent database of fossil image data and 2) using the data to address key evolutionary questions on these early plants.
The students' contribution will be to add new fossil images to the database and to measure properties of the vascular cells and tissues visible on them. These quantitative data will provide unique information that can be used to better understand the development and evolution of the vascular tissue, and ultimately its function in modern plants. Given the data available, we think that various research questions can be formulated, allowing the students to select their own hypothesis to test based on their interests.
- Projektzeitraum
- Wintersemester 2026/2027 und Sommersemester 2027
- Bewerbungszeitraum
- 12. bis 26.10.2026
- Durchführung
- nach Absprache
- Details zu Projektzeitraum und Durchführung
The project will start with a general introduction to fossil plants and their anatomy. Then students will extract relevant Middle to Late Devonian fossil images from the literature, including metadata such as the pixel/size ratio and preparation type. Then students will measure characteristics that define the different tissues (e.g., diameter, wall thickness, number of cells per tissue) on the fossil images. Current material from other projects provides tissue outlines and xylem cell numbers but no direct measurements. The role of the student will then be to search for which descriptive statistics, based on their measurements, provide the best representation of the tissue (e.g., quartiles; mean; median…). If successful, these indicators will then be used to respond to developmental, functional, or taxonomical questions that students will develop during the literature review/ data collection and through discussions with supervisors. The project can run over both semesters or less by agreement.
- Studienfach
- offen für alle Studienfächer
- Betreuende
- Thibault Durieux, JunProf Dr Martin Bouda
- Institut
- Institut für Biologie (190) (Funktionelle Ökophysiologie der Pflanzen (190j))
- Sprache
- englisch
- Teilnehmendenanzahl
- min. 1, max. 2
- Arbeitsaufwand
-
ca. 120 Stunden pro Teilnehmende:r
| 4
ECTS-Punkte
Arbeitsaufwand (Stunden und ggf. ECTS) sind ungefähre Angaben. Die tatsächlich vergebenen ECTS-Punkte ergeben sich aus der tatsächlich geleisteten Arbeit.
- Für dieses Projekt ist kein Motivationsschreiben des Studierenden erforderlich
- Projektart
- empirisch
- Lernziele
-
Die Teilnehmende lernen in diesem Projekt:
→ Broad knowledge of plant evolution and development based on early land plants.
→ Ability to search and read scientific papers by direct exposure to primary literature.
→ Plant tissue identification and image analysis (with the widely used ImageJ software).
→ Basic statistical analysis.
→ Develop the ability to define scientific questions.
- Anmerkungen für Studierende
We welcome all students, from those with no specific knowledge to those with a basis in plant anatomy, fossils, etc. The only criteria we ask for are curiosity, willingness to measure many individual cells, and ability to communicate in English.
- Schlagworte
- Pflanzen, Bildanalyse, Evolution, Paläobotanik, Holz