Transitions in the evolution of synapsid tails

Funder	Natural Environment Research Council
Recipient Organization	University of Oxford
Country	United Kingdom
Start Date	Sep 30, 2022
End Date	Sep 29, 2026
Duration	1,460 days
Number of Grantees	2
Roles	Student; Supervisor
Data Source	UKRI Gateway to Research
Grant ID	`2696825`

Grant Description

Mammals are unique among land vertebrates in a number of respects, from their locomotory posture to their ecomorphological diversity.

The evolutionary assembly of unique traits began following the evolution of the amniotes, which occurred in the upper Carboniferous.

One lineage of the amniotes, referred to as Synapsida, is today defined as Mammalia plus its stem-lineage, and originates by 305 Ma, when their earliest fossils occur (potentially earlier at 315 Ma, but this is conditional on the validity of Protoclepsydrops as a definitive member of Synapsida).