Bij Naturalis zijn er veel mogelijkheden om deel te nemen aan onderzoek. Studenten op zowel bachelor- als masterniveau kunnen ons helpen vragen te beantwoorden door middel van zelfstandige projecten. Je onderzoek kan deel uitmaken van een groter project of op zichzelf staan.
Alle beschikbare onderzoeksprojecten en stages staan hieronder vermeld:
Beschikbareonderzoeksprojecten
Development of the dermal shoulder girdle in early chondrichthyans
The dermal skeleton of living chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) differs considerably from the dermal skeleton in bony fishes. The first comprises a covering of numerous, tiny scales, while the latter is formed of larger scales and large bony…
Amazonian seeds in indigenous body ornaments
Many ethnographic body ornaments are kept in European museums, made by indigenous people from Amazonian seeds. Many of these artefacts miss the associated information on who made these objects and when, what seeds are included, and what information we can…
Bioinformatics at Naturalis
At Naturalis, research and development in bioinformatics and biodiversity informatics takes place on an ongoing basis. Projects are available that range from the fundamental, when a new research idea needs to be tested out, to the highly applied, for…
Archerfish brain anatomy model in 3D
Brains of teleost fish are generally thought to be simple. However, teleost fish can exhibit complex behavior. Archerfish (Toxotes jaculatrix) are famous for spitting jets of water at above-water insects to shoot them down and catch them at the water…
Evolution and biogeography of the plant family Asteraceae on tropical islands
Asteraceae (daisy family) is the plant family with the highest number of species and radiations on oceanic islands. Why is this group so extraordinarily diverse? To address this question, we are currently reconstructing the evolutionary history of the…
Phylogenomics of the mustard family (Brassicaceae)
In the flowering plants, herbaceous plants have evolved into woody plants hundreds of times independently from each other during evolutionary history. With over 100 documented cases, this rigorous morphological transition is especially common in the…
Identifying plant traits responsible for diversification in Canary Island flowering plants
Flowering plants, or angiosperms, represent roughly 90% of extant land plants, with over 350,000 species. They underlie terrestrial ecosystem stability globally and most life on land relies upon them either directly or indirectly. Angiosperms arose between…
Modeling environmental variables to understand rampant evolutionary transitions towards woodiness in the mustard family (Brassicaceae)
In the flowering plants, herbaceous plants have evolved into woody plants hundreds of times independently from each other during evolutionary history. This is especially true in the mustard family (Brassicaceae), a family well-known from the model plant…
Evolution of structural plumage color in birds
Many bird species display bright blue, green and purple colors across their bodies. Think for example of the wings of a kingfisher or the head of a blue tit. Instead of pigments, these colors are produced by organized nanostructures inside their feathers…
ARISE: alle Nederlandse natuur stages HBO/WO
ARISE is een infrastructuur-in-aanleg die de straks hele Nederlandse (meercellige) natuur kent en herkent. Binnen dat programma kunnen studenten bij verschillende activiteiten en op verschillende niveaus participeren.
Coot nests made from plastic debris personalities, fledging success and nest isolation
Coots use all kinds of litter in their nests; windscreen wipers, bicycle tires, condoms, cocaine envelopes, artificial plants, sunglasses and nowadays also our face masks. Biologist Auke-Florian Hiemstra wants to know why these birds do this and what the…
Morphometrics and phylogeny of the wild tulip (Tulipa sylvestris)
Tulip taxonomy is complex and different treatments do not agree on the delimitation of species and subspecies. In this thesis you will focus on the taxonomy of Tulipa sylvestris, a small yellow tulip commonly called the ‘wild tulip’ or bostulp in Dutch…
Investigating unknown Antarctic deep sea biodiversity through eDNA sequencing
Deep sea biodiversity is largely unknown due to limitations posed by difficulties in sampling at large depths. New molecular approaches have been recently developed to enhance our ability to study and monitor aquatic ecosystems. Environmental DNA (eDNA) is…
Taxonomic and functional diversity of sandy beach meiofauna
Sandy beaches are highly important ecosystems for a wide range of species. The most diverse group of animals inhabiting sandy beaches is the meiofauna, which consists of species smaller than 1mm. Due to difficulties in species identification, relatively…
Phylogenomics of species radiations
In species radiations it is often not clear how many species are included, because ‘cryptic species’ are involved. Cryptic species behave as distinct species, but have gone unnoticed due to their morphological similarity. Deciphering the phylogenetic…
Taxonomy and evolution of the Myristicaceae in the Neotropics
What does the phylogeny of the Neotropical Myristicaceae tell us about the evolution of its genera in the Amazon and about the diversity of the genus Virola Aublet? Among the six Neotropical genera, Virola has the widest geographical range and the largest…
MtDNA barcoding invasive species
As a consequence of increasing globalization, species can reach places that were previously inaccessible. Invasive species are considered to be one of the main threats to global biodiversity. They can threaten native species with extinction via predation…
Inferring hybrid zone history
Where the ranges of closely related species meet they may hybridize. The regions where this occurs are called hybrid zones. A balance of selection against hybrids and dispersal of parental species determines the width of the hybrid zone, but the…
Unraveling evolutionary patterns in microscopic wood anatomy
The Sapotaceae, or sapodilla, family is a large pantropical woody family of ca. 1100 species ranging in habit from small understory shrubs to large canopy trees. They thrive in humid, lowland tropics with high concentration of species in Amazonian South…
Positive root pressure and xylem repair
The main aim of this project is to further our understanding of the conditions under which positive root pressures develop in the tomato plant, and to test the hypothesis that the ability to generate positive root pressure enhances drought-resistance.
Physiological response to drought of a giant woody cabbage cross (Brassica oleracea)
Background and context In the context of climate change and the higher probability of extreme climate events such as droughts and heatwaves, more research is needed to understand and predict how plants will react to these stressful events. In particular…
