ERC Starting Grant for research on dinosaur faeces
Martin Qvarnström has received funding from the ERC to study dinosaur faeces (right) to find out how these reptiles became so successful. Photo: Sigrid Ejemar and Grzegorz Niedźwiedzki
Martin Qvarnström, a researcher at the Department of Organismal Biology, has been awarded a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) to study the evolution of dinosaurs through their faeces. The grant is aimed at researchers at the early stages of their careers.
“This ERC grant means the world to me and my research! Now I can develop my studies of early dinosaurs to understand why they became so enormously successful 200 million years ago. The journey to dominance took time, about 30 million years, and is the period of dinosaur evolution that we know the least about. My group and I will try to change that,” says Martin Qvarnström.
Revealing details about other animals
They search for answers in fossilised faeces, which they analyse in a particle accelerator. This allows them to find out what these early dinosaurs ate. The fossilised excrement also reveals details about the ecology and evolutionary development of this reptile group and other animals of the same age.
“This will enable us to shed new light on one of the biggest events in the history of vertebrates – and perhaps find mechanisms that can generally explain how animal groups take over or disappear during mass extinctions and ecological crises,” says Martin Qvarnström.
The grant for his project, “Unravelling early dinosaur success through fossil digestive contents and trophic dynamics“ amounts to one and a half million euros and spans five years.
Åsa Malmberg
European Research Council (ERC)
The European Research Council (ERC) was established in 2007, and is the first European funding body for excellent researchers in Europe. Each year, it selects and awards grants to the very best and most creative researchers. The ERC awards four types of grants: Starting Grants, Consolidator Grants, Advanced Grants and Synergy Grants.