A Swiss-funded project, based at the Bern Natural History Museum and University of Bern, to identify how life cycle variation drives biodiversity in changing environments over time and space.
A study of salamanders’ resilience
Amphibians are among the vertebrates most affected by climate change: over one third are at risk of extinction. However, amphibians that undergo more complex forms of metamorphosis may have a greater natural capacity to adapt in response to environmental changes. The Meta-Morphosis Project is testing this by studying the effect of metamorphosis complexity on the evolutionary diversification of salamanders. The results will increase our understanding of these remarkable creatures and focus conservation efforts toward those species at greatest risk of extinction.
Meta-Morphosis Resources
Over the coming years, the Meta-Morphosis Project will be generating free resources for educators, researchers, and lifelong learners. Check out all of the available resources below.
For educators
Lesson plans, Sketchfab models and more to help students learn about biology, evolution, & conservation.
For researchers
Tutorials, datasets, and other open-access resources for application in research and conservation projects.
For enthusiasts
Photos, videos, and other content for lifelong learners, biology lovers, and salamander enthusiasts.
Documenting our process
Science cannot be replicated and built upon if it is not well documented. That’s why we’re visually documenting our work and sharing our experiences here through photo galleries organised around particular projects and field trips.
An integrative approach
A full understanding of salamander behavior, ecology, evolution, and conservation is only possible by integrating many different fields of biology. To achieve this, the Meta-Morphosis project has five main objectives that cut across multiple biological disciplines:
- build an interconnected dataset
- establish form-function relationships
- assess evolvability in salamanders
- assess biodiversity in deep time
- develop conservation priorities
The latest from Meta-Morphosis
With a team of scientists, there’s always something new from the Meta-Morphosis Project.
Lab retreat 2023
From September 20 to 22 2023, the team’s lab retreat took place in Adelboden in Switzerland. The members of the meta-morphosis team were all present (Anne-Claire Fabre, Vivien Louppe, Isabelle Toussaint and Morgane Fournier). Collaborators were also invited to the…
Chasing dragons in a laboratory cave
Do you like caving ? In early September, Anthony Herrel and I went to Moulis (Ariège, France) to visit the CNRS laboratory cave part of the SETE, hosted by our collaborator Olivier Guillaume, without whom this would not have been…
Lower jaw modularity in the African clawed frog and fire salamander
How do we prepare specimens for scanning?
In order to observe the precise morphology of the head bones, we use a micro-computed tomography (micro-CT scanner). This is a 3D imaging technique using x-rays to see inside an object, slice by slice. For our project, we need to…
Phylogeny of the salamanders included in our Form-Function project
The images come from Vitalii Hulai, Joel Sartore, anitasstudio, lifeonwhite, Javier Alonso Huerta, Matthieu Berroneau, underground reptiles.
Filming salamanders at the Amphibian Foundation
Why salamanders are so special? Were you aware that Salamanders present the most important diversity of developmental strategies among vertebrates? Most salamander species have what we call a biphasic life cycle, meaning that, like the frogs, eggs are laid in…