Congratulations to Dave Lutgen and Mathilde Barthe who successfully defended their Master projects from the Darwin Master Programme in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Montpellier. Dave's M2 project was on the comparative transcriptomics of mammalian salivary glands. Mathilde's M1 project consisted in detecting convergent evolution in the genomes of myrmecophagous carnivorans. Good luck to Dave for his upcoming PhD in Germany and to Mathilde for her Maste

We are pleased to welcome Mathilde Barthe in the ConvergeAnt project for the next three months. Mathilde is a Master student (M1) from the Darwin Master Programme in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Montpellier. She will be working on detecting convergent evolution in the genomes of myrmecophagous carnivorans. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Master #Students #Bioinformatics #Transcriptomes #Pangolins

Kathleen Garland successfully defended her six-month Master project from the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology. For her second project with us, Kathleen explored the olfactory capabilities of ant-eating mammals using the cribriform plate as an osteological proxy under the supervision of Sérgio and Lionel. Kath, we wish you all the best for the next steps in her career! #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Master #Students #Genomics #Pseudogenes

Dave Lutgen is joining the ConvergeAnt project for the next semester. Dave is a Master student (M2) from the Darwin Master Programme in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology of the University of Montpellier. He will be working on the comparative transcriptomics of salivary glands in placental mammals. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Master #Students #Bioinformatics #Transcriptomes #Pangolins

After a busy year investigating convergent gene loss and actively gaining some French language skills, Chris is returning to his beloved California. Farewell Chris, we hope you'll come back visiting us regularly, there are so many frameshift mutations still to be discovered in those mammal genomes! #Postdoc #Students #Genomics #Pseudogenes

Huge congratulations to Rémi for winning the 2018 award for Best Graduate Student Paper in the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution journal Molecular Biology and Evolution! The price includes an invitation to the SMBE 2018 meeting in Yokohama (Japan). We are so glad to have him as a PhD student working on the ConvergeAnt project. #Genomics #Students #PhD #Conference

Kathleen Garland successfully defended her three-month Master project from the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology. Kath worked on deciphering the evolution of bitter taste repertoires in placental mammals. We are pleased to have her continuing with us on the ConvergeAnt project for a second project on morphological adaptation next semester. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Master #Students #Genomics #Pseudogenes

Mark Wright successfully defended his six-month Master project from the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology. His report entitled "A study of morphological convergence in the nasal cavity of ant-eating mammals" represents a great resource for the comparative anatomy of turbinal bones in mammals. We wish him good luck in his new adventures at Harvard University. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Morphometrics #Sinuses #Collections #CTscans #Master

Rémi Allio joined the ConvergeAnt project as a PhD student following from his Master degree at the University of Montpellier. Rémi's PhD will investigate the extent of convergent molecular evolution among the different lineages of ant-eating mammals for the next three years. He is co-supervised by Frédéric and Benoit. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Genomics #Pangolins #Pseudogenes #PhD #Students

Mark Wright just joined the ConvergeAnt project for the next semester. Mark is a Master student from the Erasmus Mundus Master Programme in Evolutionary Biology. He will be working on the convergent evolution of paranasal sinuses in ant-eating mammals using 3D CT-scans of skulls from museum specimens. #Anteaters #Armadillos #Aardwolf #Aardvark #Morphometrics #Sinuses #Collections #CTscans #Master #Students

Ana Maria started her 6-month Master project on the molecular characterization of the diet of ant-eating mammals using metabarcoding and metagenomic tools. She will be analyzing fecal samples previously collected by Carly Vynne in the Emas National Park in Brazil. Ana Maria is a M2 student of the Master DTec-Bio progamme of the Université de Montpellier. #Students #Master #Metagenomics #Diet #Anteaters #Armadillos

Sérgio Ferreira Cardoso started his 3-year PhD project at the Université de Montpellier on the convergent evolution of skull shape and dental reduction in ant-eating mammals under the joined supervision of Lionel Hautier and Frédéric Delsuc. He was previously a Master student at the Universidade de Lisboa in Portugal. #Students #PhD #Morphometrics