PhD Research Fellowship in Paleobiology/Paleontology in Oslo

PhD Research Fellowship in Paleobiology/Paleontology

A 4-year PhD position (SKO 1017) is available at the Natural History Museum (NHM), University of Oslo.

The Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, is the largest of its kind in Norway with approximately 150 employees engaged in research, teaching, curation and outreach in Botany, Mycology, Zoology, Paleontology and Geology.

Job description

The main objective of this PhD project is to investigate the underlying patterns and processes of the Ordovician Radiation, also known as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE). The Ordovician (488.3 to 443.7 million years ago) was a period in the history of the biosphere that saw a very rapid diversification of many groups of fossilizable organisms. The temporal patterns of diversity changes seem to be in part unique across different groups of organisms and in different geographical regions, yet, there are also suggestions that globally operating agents may have contributed to this mother of all radiations. This controversy calls for both the reanalysis of existing data using better statistical tools as well as new collection of fossil and paleoenvironmental data aimed at answering specific questions, to boost existing knowledge.

This project will involve studying diversification dynamics in the deep past by combining data and insights from fresh field collections, museum collections, the literature and public databases. Depending on the past training and academic inclinations of the successful candidate, she/he may be involved in fieldwork in Ordovician outcrops, compiling existing data, and/or the development of statistical methodology for paleobiology. The successful candidate will join an actively growing Paleobiology and Macroevolution group at the University of Oslo and will be part of the scientific community at both the Natural History Museum and at the Department of Biosciences at the University of Oslo. The Natural History Museum in Oslo has a globally known, large collection of Ordovician fauna that will be crucial to the development of this project. Our research spans analytical paleontology, macroevolution, macroecology and the statistical tools in paleobiological research. This PhD posi! tion is in part funded by Norwegian Research Council grant to Lee Hsiang Liow, and in part by the Natural History Museum of Oslo. The successful candidate will also likely collaborate with Seth Finnegan (University of California, Berkeley), Melanie Hopkins (American Museum of Natural History), and Björn Kröger (University of Helsinki), as well as other colleagues at the Natural History Museum, Oslo and at the Department of Biosciences at the University of Oslo.

Click here to apply: http://uio.easycruit.com/vacancy/1481634/71922?iso=no