Marie K. Hörnig
Marie successfully defended her PhD thesis in January 2019.
My main research interest is the evolution of arthropods, with a focus on the evolution of ontogenetic patterns including fossil representatives. During my diploma thesis, I especially investigated the insect group Dictyoptera.
Modern dictyopteran insects, which comprise roaches, termites and mantodeans, show a wide range of social behaviour including different types of brood care: carrying an ootheca ("egg packages"), ovovivipary (retraction of oothecae into brood pouch) right up to vivipary. Different species also feed and protect the young after hatching and exhibit a sub-social and even eu-social behaviour.
Roach-like insects possess a long-ranging fossil record. They already dominated the fauna of Carboniferous forests 300 million years ago.
My research focusses on the evolution of ontogenesis and the deep-time aspects of social and brood care behaviour. Furthermore, I investigated the origin of the different morphotypes within Dictyoptera.
Behaviour cannot directly be observed in extinct species, yet the morphology of fossilised organisms can show some aspects that indicate specific behaviour (e.g. predation) or different grades of intraspecific sociality and brood care. For reconstructing the evolution of these aspects I investigated extinct fossilized representatives of Dictyoptera (especially fossil inclusions in amber) and compared these with observations of extant species.
Different methods are used for the documentation of the fossilised and extant insects, e.g. light microscopy and composite macrophotography under polarised light, stereo photography, micro-computed tomography, and virtual surface reconstructions.
During my PhD studies I broaden this approach and investigate the evolution of reproductive strategies of fossil insects in general.
Awards:
09/2016: First place for poster presentation. Annual meeting of the German Palaeontological Society, Dresden
09/2015: Third place for poster presentation. Annual meeting of the German Zoological Society, Graz
Fellowships and grants:
since 05/2015: PhD fellowship of the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes
09/2016: travel grant of Glaxo Smith Kline for the Annual meeting of the German Palaeontological Society, Dresden
04/2015: Bogislaw PhD fellowship of the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-University of Greifswald (declined in favour of Studienstiftung fellowhip)
2014: EU-Synthesys grant for 3 weeks at the Natural History Museum Vienna
2013: EU-Synthesys grant for 2 weeks at the Zoological Museum Copenhagen
Research visits:
07/2015: Natural History Museum Vienna
07/2014: Zoological Museum Copenhagen
Publications:
Haug, J. T., Haug, C., Neumann, C., Sombke, A. & Hörnig, M. K. early view. Early post-embryonic polyxenidan millipedes from Saxonian amber (Eocene). Bulletin of Geosciences 93. Free access PDF
Hörnig, M. K., Haug, C., Schneider, J. W. & Haug, J. T. 2018. Evolution of reproductive strategies in dictyopteran insects—clues from ovipositor morphology of extinct roachoids. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 63, 1–24. Free access PDF
Haug, J. T., Nagler, C., Haug, C. & Hörnig, M. K. 2017. A group of assassin fly pupae preserved in a single piece of Eocene amber. Bulletin of Geosciences 92, 283–295. Free access PDF
Haug, J. T., Poschmann, M., Hörnig, M. K. & Lutz, H. 2017. A crustacean with eumalacostracan affinities from the Early Devonian Hunsrück Slate (SW Germany). Papers in Palaeontology 3, 151–159. DOI 10.1002/spp2.1070
Hörnig, M. K., Haug, J. T. & Haug, C. 2017. An exceptionally preserved 110 million years old praying mantis provides new insights into the predatory behaviour of early mantodeans. PeerJ 5, e3605. Free access PDF
Nagler, C., Hörnig, M. K., Haug, J. T., Noever, C., Høeg, J. T. & Glenner, H. 2017. The bigger, the better? Volume measurements of parasites and hosts: Parasitic barnacles (Cirripedia, Rhizocephala) and their decapod hosts. PLoS ONE 12, e0179958. Free access PDF
Hörnig, M. K., Sombke, A., Haug, C., Harzsch, S. & Haug, J. T. 2016. What nymphal morphology can tell us about parental investment – a group of cockroach hatchlings in Baltic Amber documented by a multi-method approach. Palaeontologia Electronica 19(1), art. 5A, 20 pp. Free access
Liu, Y., Melzer, R. R., Haug, J. T., Haug, C., Briggs, D. E. G., Hörnig, M. K., He, Y.-y. & Hou, X. 2016. Three-dimensionally preserved minute larva of a great-appendage arthropod from the early Cambrian Chengjiang biota. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) 113, 5542–5546. DOI 10.1073/pnas.1522899113
Dittmann, I. L., Hörnig, M. K., Haug, J. T. & Haug, C. 2015. Raptoblatta waddingtonae n. gen. et n. sp. – an Early Cretaceous roach-like insect with a mantodean-type raptorial foreleg. Palaeodiversity 8, 103–111. Free access PDF
Haug, J. T., Hädicke, C. W., Haug, C. & Hörnig, M. K. 2015. A possible hatchling of a jumping bristletail in 50 million years old amber. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen 278, 191–199. DOI 10.1127/njgpa/2015/0523
Hädicke, C. W., Hörnig, M. K., Haug, C. & Haug, J. T. 2014. New data on fossil Archaeognatha from Baltic amber and the origin of the insect ovipositor. Palaeodiversity 7, 167–183. Free access PDF Suppl.1 Suppl. 2
Hörnig, M. K., Haug, C., Herd, K. J. & Haug, J. T. 2014. New insights into dictyopteran early development: smallest Palaeozoic roachoid nymph found so far. Palaeodiversity 7, 159–165. Free access PDF
Hörnig, M. K., Haug, J. T. & Haug, C. 2013. New details of Santanmantis axelrodi and the evolution of the mantodean morphotype. Palaeodiversity 6, 157–168. Free access PDF
For details, see Marie's website at University of Greifswald
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