MNF/Open PhD position Branching spirals in deep time: Ammonoid phylogeny and macroecology

The offered PhD project will focus on building an ammonoid phylogeny in a Bayesian framework in collaboration with two Postdocs, the project leader, and a large group of international collaborators. The PhD candidate will: 1) help to define morphological characters for character matrices to study ammonoid evolution; 2) choose a large group of ammonoids, for which representative taxa shall be scored; 3) carry out Bayesian and parsimony analyses, which (4) will be integrated in an ammonoid supertree; 5) study an additional important aspect of ammonoids, such as dimorphism or variability.

The University of Zurich, Switzerland's largest university, offers a range of attractive positions in various subject areas and professional fields. With around 10,000 employees and currently 12 professional apprenticeship streams the University offers an inspiring working environment on cutting-edge research and top-class education.

• The ideal candidate will be a highly motivated student of Life- or Earth Sciences with a biological, geological or palaeontological background.

• Excellent writing skills in English are required.

• Knowledge in working with methods to reconstruct phylogenies such as Bayesian and parsimony would be great; alternatively, it is expected that this knowledge is acquired early during the project.

• Some computational skills or experience with statistics are expected.

• Knowledge on ammonoid palaeobiology would also be very helpful.

• German language skills are an asset in daily life in and around the university but are not mandatory for the position.