About the Project
We are offering an exciting PhD research opportunity to join a collaborative project investigating the mechanisms that generate variation in shell coloration in tortoises, sea turtles, and terrapins. The student will combine empirical data with theoretical modelling to explore the processes underlying complex animal colour patterns.
This interdisciplinary project will integrate approaches from evolutionary biology, image analysis, machine learning, and physics. A range of physics-inspired image analysis tools and simulations will be used to model how colour pattern variation on turtle shells may be generated. Modelled data will then be compared with observed variation within this species to identify species-specific mechanisms that could explain this diversity.
The results will contribute to understanding how shell colour patterns develop, how variation arises, and which factors and constraints shape colour pattern diversity within and across different species of turtles (Testudines).
Project aims and student responsibilities:
- Develop biophysical and mathematical models (e.g. reaction‐diffusion, cellular automata, or other pattern‐formation frameworks) to simulate how different shell patterning mechanisms could produce the observed variation.
- Compare model predictions with empirical data to assess which models best capture the within‐species (individual‐to‐individual) pattern differences and infer mechanisms producing the observed variation.
- Identify shared and different mechanisms involved in establishing colour pattern variation across species.
Training and supervision:
The student will work within an interdisciplinary team that includes evolutionary biologists, marine biologists, and physicists. Supervision will be provided in physics, marine biology, and evolutionary biology, with opportunities to contribute to a scientific publication.
The project will last 4 years and will be full-time. Both Home and International students are welcome to apply.
