Reconstructing the evolutionary history of tadpole shrimps and their closer relatives, important components of ephemeral freshwater habitats

• Applicant: Dr. Carolin Haug
• Subject Area: Geology
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 524641432

Tadpole shrimps (Notostraca) are iconic components of the freshwater fauna, more specifically in ephemeral ponds. Due to their rather large body size, they are quite prominent in this habitat. They have been popularised as teaching tools for kids, but also represent a severe pest of rice in some areas of the world, being therefore also of educational and economic value. Fossil tadpole shrimps are known since the Devonian (about 365 million years ago) and thus have a rather long lasting evolutionary history. Possibly due to their long evolutionary history with fossils clearly identifiable as tadpole shrimps, they have been suggested to have not changed much since that time and have been considered “living fossils”. Morphometric comparisons have shown that this assumed morphological stasis is in fact not present and that heterochrony (the evolutionary change of developmental timing) seems to have played an important role in the evolution of the group Notostraca. Morphometry has furthermore been demonstrated to be able to detect new species as such. The here proposed project aims at using high-resolution imaging for a wide array of fossil and extant tadpole shrimps and their closer fossil and extant relatives. Based on these data, the project will establish a morphometric framework for reconstructing the evolutionary history of the group Notostraca. These findings will provide deeper insights into the presumed long-term stability of the specific habitat of ephemeral ponds, which seems to have played an important role for the last 365 million years.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants