PhD student in vertebrate palaeontology

Are you interested in working with vertebrate palaeontology, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a PhD position in vertebrate palaeontology at the Department of Organismal Biology at Uppsala University.

The Department of Organismal Biology teaches and explores the evolution, development and function on the organismal level. For more information see www.iob.uu.se.

The Program of Evolution and Development studies the evolution and developmental biology of vertebrates, both separately and as an interdisciplinary research domain that aims to illuminate the assembly of the vertebrate body plan. There is particular focus on the deep part of the vertebrate family tree and correspondingly the early fossil history of the group, from the origin of vertebrates up to the fish-tetrapod transition, but we also study the development of Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems, we are interested in how and when the first dinosaurs arose.

Duties
The work will consist of studying, interpreting, analysing and describing fossil material (bones and footprints) of Triassic and Jurassic theropod dinosaurs from Poland and Sweden. The material will principally be studied using photogrammetry, surface scans, computed tomography, synchrotron microtomography (a kind of high-resolution 3D x-ray imaging). The PhD student will study these data, reconstruct and interpret the anatomy of the fossils, and on that basis analyse their interrelationships, probable lifestyles etc. The results will be presented in peer-reviewed scientific journals and at international scientific conferences. In addition to research, the PhD student is expected to do some teaching, usually as a lab assistant. There will be opportunities for fieldwork. 

Project description
Theropod dinosaurs were the dominant group of small- to large-sized terrestrial predators in global ecosystems during the Mesozoic Era. Their initial evolutionary radiation in the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic was a gradual and complex. The oldest occurrence of their skeletal remains is dated to the mid-Carnian (Late Triassic), ~235 million years ago (Ma), but the fossil record of theropods or more general dinosaur precursors – Dinosauriforms, the clade including dinosaurs and their closest relatives (e.g., silesaurids) – extends to the Middle Triassic, 240-245 Ma. Our understanding of the origin and early radiation of theropods remains incomplete, primarily due to the limited availability of outcrops with the late Middle and early Late Triassic terrestrial sediments containing body and trace fossil records.

The recently discovered, unique assemblages yielding the skeletal remains of the terrestrial vertebrates from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic of Poland and Sweden promise important contributions, which will further advance our comprehension of the early theropod evolution. These sites offer novel data for the debate on the early dinosauromorph, dinosauriform or basal theropod anatomy, diversity and ecology in a region that until now was poorly sampled. Consequently, it makes the territories of Poland and Sweden (CEB) one of the most promising areas for investigating the early radiation of theropod dinosaurs and their relatives.

The primary objective of this PhD project is to elucidate the evolutionary history of the earliest theropod dinosaurs during the late Middle-Late Triassic and the Early Jurassic. It will encompass two main subjects of investigation: 1) The diversity of the Late Triassic saurischian and theropod dinosaurs from northern Pangaea; and 2) the early radiation of the theropod dinosaurs at the beginning of the Early Jurassic.

The proposed PhD project will be based on the examination of the morphology and evolutionary relationships of the recently discovered, but yet undescribed fossils collected from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic outcrops of Silesia, Holy Cross Mountains. (Poland) and Skåne (Sweden).

Methodology
The PhD student will supervise or directly carry out all primary objectives of the PhD project, including 1) performing comparative studies; 2) surface scanning and photogrammetry of specimens; 3) phylogenetic analyses; 4) evolutionary interpretation of results; and 5) manuscript preparation.

Collection of the specimens. The specimen collection process will involve excavation work at, where the main fossil assemblages are concentrated within fluvial sedimentary sequences. In addition, reconnaissance expeditions will be conducted by supervisor and the PhD student and in search of new potential sites with Triassic and Jurassic terrestrial sediments containing theropod dinosaur fossils.

Computed Tomography and Synchrotron Microtomography. The best-preserved specimens will be scanned using the nondestructive Computed Tomography (CT) or synchrotron microtomography scans. The acquired 2D images of cross-sections will be edited using software, where the sediment matrix will be separated from the bone and subsequently removed and the 3D models will be generated.

Photogrammetry and surface scans. Specimens housed in foreign collections will undergo a thorough examination, photography documentation, and measurement collection. Additionally, photogrammetry, a method enabling the creation of 3D models from a series of photographs of an object, will be employed.

Histological sections. For certain specimens, thin sections may be necessary to examine their histology. This process will be conducted in the well-equipped histology laboratory.

Phylogenetic analysis. A synapomorphy-based approach and phylogenetic analyses will be used to determine the affinities of the collected dinosauromorph and dinosaur material. Specimens will be scored using modified matrices present in the recent literature. For parsimony analyses, the free software T.N.T. 1.6 will be used, which offers several different algorithms (e.g., Ratchet, Drift, Implied Weighting, Sectorial Search, Tree fusing) for testing node support and character mapping.

The project will be supervised jointly by Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, Per Ahlberg, and Martin Qvarnström (all at the Department of Organismal Biology, Uppsala University).

Requirements
To meet the entry requirements for doctoral studies, you must

• hold a Master’s (second-cycle) degree in palaeontology or equivalent, or
• have completed at least 240 credits in higher education, with at least 60 credits at Master’s level including an independent project worth at least 15 credits, or
• have acquired substantially equivalent knowledge in some other way.

The qualification requirements for this position are: practical research experience of working with surface scan and tomographic data of vertebrate fossils, full written and spoken fluency in English, and the ability to both carry out research independently and to integrate successfully into a close-knit team working on a large research project under the leadership of the principal PhD supervisor.

Additional qualifications
Experience of working with surface scans and tomography data, experience of the segmentation software package Materialise Mimics, and experience of working on vertebrate fossils are meritorious for this position.

Rules governing PhD students are set out in the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5, § 1-7 and in Uppsala University's rules and guidelines.

About the employment
The employment is a temporary position according to the Higher Education Ordinance chapter 5 § 7. Scope of employment 100 %. Starting date 1 November 2025 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

For further information about the position, please contact: Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki, grzegorz.niedzwiedzki@ebc.uu.se

Please submit your application by 19 October 2025, UFV-PA 2025/2644.