I am mostly interested in exploring the processes driving the changes in accumulation and spatial distribution of species over time. In particular I look at how phylogenetic trees inform us on those processes. To answer some of my research questions, I develop the necessary, computing tools. These approaches are based either on likelihood calculations or forward simulations. All realms of life are fascinating to me: my research interest includes birds, bats, palm trees, archeobacteria, butterflies, damselflies, amphipods, cichlids, and water beetles. I am currently working for Lesley T. Lancaster at the University of Aberdeen.
After that, I took a gap year to be completely devoted to falconry (although I managed to publish a couple of papers). In 2015 I moved to The Netherlands to start my PhD with Dr. Rampal Etienne. I had a terrific time during my PhD project, getting familiar to likelihood methods and simulation approaches. After graduating in 2019 I moved to Scotland to work with Dr. Justin Travis on the interface of ecology and evolution to tackle questions on biogeography.
Taught in Indonesia March 2023.
We all know that speciation and species extinction have produced the current diversity of life on Earth. Quite unknown, however, is 1) the extent of fluctuations in the number of speciation and extinction events over time, and 2) the geographic context of it. Among the candidates to explain variation in speciation and extinction probabilities are temperature, time, ecological interactions, trait evolution and geological events.
Molecular phylogenetic trees certainly contain information about this, but we need to use the right tools to retrieve it. In this hands-on workshop, we will train students in the use of methods to test those hypotheses. Students will use simulated and real-world datasets to practise and be encouraged to use their own datasets to complete a short research project.
Taught in Costa Rica 2021
In this course we provide the necessary background to carry out diversification analysis. It includes the handling of phylogenetic trees in R environment. Training objectives:
1) Have a solid theoretical basis on evolutionary patterns extracted from phylogenetic trees
2) Handle phylogenetic trees in R Studio. Learn how to fit and compare models of diversification
3) Code simulated datasets under different evolutionary scenarios.
4) Be able to reconstruct the evolutionary and biogeographic history of a cladeWe look for a PhD student. Internationals are encouraged to apply:
One of the main challenges that birds of prey face is the illegal trade. Thousands of individuals are taken every year from nature to then be sold in the black market. It is sometimes impossible to know whether a given individual comes from an unlawful source or is a legal bird (from a registered breeder) which is allowed to be kept in captivity. The situation is more complex because poachers use legit documentation issued to one individual bird to then be used for other, illegally captured, bird. In a way, poachers recycle documentation. Local law enforcement is often times inefficient as it does not possess tools to verify whether documentation matches a given bird. For instance, the sex of a bird is a key element stated in the documentation that cannot be easily determined in the field as there is not sexual dimorphism in raptors. Bird's age is a similar case. In this project and in close collaboration with the Wildlife Museum of Veracruz (Mexico), we are developing a statistical and morphological approach to create a sexing and aging tool to be used in the field. This tool comes in the form of an user-friendly software that can be used by anyone.
