Our lab currently have one research internship position open for 7 months (fully Funded, 600 Eur/month. Suitable Master and Bachelor students (Suitable for Spanish citizens and foreign graduates of Spanish Universities, as well as people who have Spanish equivalencia of their foreign degree completed. Our position is JAE_INT_EX0881 "Drivers of gigantism in the Australian Miocene Insects". Applications at https://sede.csic.gob.es/tramites/programa-jae/jae-intro-2025 Deadline: 2nd of May, 2025 Factors Driving evolution of Insect Gigantism in Subtropical Miocene Environments of Australia Insect size is a crucial functional trait that influences dispersal, productivity, and the ability of insects to survive rapid global change events, including mass extinctions. The McGrath's Flat fossil site offers a unique window into the much warmer and wetter past of eastern Australia during the Miocene (approximately 16 million years ago). At this site, our team discovered millions of insect fossils between 2018 and 2025. (https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2022/11/billabong-of-ancient-life/) We have described numerous insect species from the site, including several species of cicadas, flies, and wasps, as well as spiders and fish. Many of the insects described are as large or even larger than any of their modern relatives. This gigantism is especially evident in the cicadas Tithopsaltria titan, which are among the largest cicadas to have ever existed in Earth's history. The causes of the prevalent gigantism in the insects of McGrath's Flat are unclear, but there are multiple poorly understood factors that may influence insect size, such as predation pressure, temperature, or partial oxygen pressure. Our hypothesis is that, in the warmer Miocene environments of eastern Australia, insect groups affected by this gigantism experienced a higher rate of phylogenetic radiation, leading to the exploitation of a broader spectrum of niches and the emergence of numerous "giant" taxa. Call for JAE INTRO Fellowship Applicant We invite an undergraduate student to join this project, participating in the work of a Spanish-Australian-German international team aiming to analyze the phylogenies of various insect groups described from McGrath's Flat. The fellow will: Learn to carry out trait evolution analyses on both fossils and modern animals. Learn statistical methods to analyze diversification rates in animals (primarily using R). Become part of the activities of a dynamic, multidisciplinary international group. Tasks to be performed: Assemble phylogenetic data for analysis (mainly from open-access molecular data sources such as GenBank). Create trait (size) databases for the insect groups being analyzed. Participate in writing the manuscript resulting from the study. VIKTOR BARANOV (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)