Team

My research programme focuses on the joint application of an array of state-of-the-art techniques in palaeobiology to elucidate the scenarios in which some of the major evolutionary transitions of animals took place.

I have particular interest in the emergence of vertebrates, the evolution of gigantism and endothermy, the establishment of coevolutionary relationships between flowering plants and modern pollinators, the colonization of land by animals, and the nature of organismal evolution (contingency vs determinism), among other topics. Currently, I hold a Ramon y Cajal fellowship in the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology in the University of Valencia (Spain).

Testing competing hypotheses about the agnathan-gnathostome Devonian turnover using biomechanical and phylogenetic comparative methods.

Working on the evolutionary origin of teeth studying the fossil record of extinct jawless vertebrates, but also genes in the teeth of living jawless vertebrates.

Working on Cenozoic shark faunas of the Mediterranean basin and their diversity patterns linked to key geological events.

Working on Cambrian and Ordovician invertebrates of Iberia to test hypotheses on diversity patterns in high latitudes during the Palaeozoic.

Investigating the macroevolutionary dynamics of theropod hydrodynamics using computational fluid dynamics, with a special focus on spinosaurids.

Investigating the macroevolutionary dynamics and trade-offs of tetrapodomorph hydrodynamics during the vertebrate transition from water to land.

Investigating the diversity, extinction, and origination dynamics of mammals during the Miocene Climatic Optimum and their environmental correlates.

(2023) Functional aspects of the headshield processes in Ostracoderms