Promoter: Leonard Dewaele
​​â¶Ä‹Co-promoter: Sam Van Wassenbergh
Supervisor: Anastasia Selini
​Subject: Despite their overall similar appearance at a first and distant glance, Antarctic seals (family Phocidae, subfamily Monachinae, tribe Lobodontini) have vastly different crania and mandibles. This also reflects large differences in their favoured prey types, hunting styles and feeding specialisation. Prime examples are the charismatic crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga) and the equally charismatic leopard seal (Hydrurga leptonyx), with the former having a narrow krill-based diet, using filter feeding and the latter having a very generalist carnivoran diet including krill, fish, penguins, and other seals.
The fossil record of Lobodontini centres around fossils recovered from Peru and Chile, and to a minor extent from South Africa. Morphologically, crania and mandibles add to the enormous disparity observed between extant Lobodontini, with Acrophoca longirostris seemingly having the longest and most slender dentary of all Phocidae, and Hadrokirus martini arguably the most robust and thick mandible of all Phocidae. Other fossil phocids found in Peru and Chile show various degrees of elongation or shortening. This raises questions about the feeding capabilities of these early seals. With a rich fossil record of possibly transitional morphologies among closely related species, it is interesting to investigate their mandibular evolution and how they were able to fit into different ecological niches through geologic time. Comparing them with extant phocids may provide valuable information into the evolution of feeding in phocids through deep time.
In this project, the student will: (1) become familiar with the cranial anatomy of phocid pinnipeds; (2) gather 3D surface scans of phocid mandibles; (3) conduct quantitative analysis of morphology and performance of early phocid mandibles using 3D geometric morphometrics and Finite Element Analysis; (4) assess interspecific differences in feeding performance across the phocid phylogenetic tree as part of co-promotor Selini's ongoing doctoral research.
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