Maria is a PhD student at Anglia Ruskin University. She has previously completed her MSc in Ecology at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, where she specialised in anatomy, physiology, and behaviour of animals. Prior to beginning her doctoral studies, she worked as an educator at the National Aquarium of Denmark and spent time hiking through New Zealand engaging her passion for nature.
Her PhD project focuses on the evolution of the mammalian larynx. Maria will initially collect new data using micro-CT imaging of mammalian larynges from the Harrison’s collection at ARU and generate 3D models of the larynges from three highly diverse mammalian orders. These models, combined with existing data from international collaborators, will form the most comprehensive dataset on mammalian laryngeal anatomy to date. This dataset will serve as the foundation for an anatomical comparative study across mammalian orders. Morphological differences will be analysed using geometric morphometrics, and phylogenetic comparative methods will be used to investigate any tendencies behind the evolution of the mammalian larynx. The project will then establish which evolutionary processes and selection pressures that may have shaped the mammalian larynx based on the adaptive ecological and behavioural traits of the individual animal groups. These findings will offer important insights into the evolution of the mammalian larynx.
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