Biography

I am a palaeontologist working predominantly on dinosaurs and other Mesozoic reptiles (e.g. crocodylomorphs). I am currently a Research Fellow at University College London and a Research Adjunct at North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, studying palaeobiology, macroevolution, macroecology, and extinction.
For my research I use phylogenetic, biogeographic, statistical, and Earth System Modelling tools. 

My main research topics include: 1) the interplay between changing climate, geography, and biodiversity in controlling macroevolution and macroecological patterns; 2) the physical drivers behind evolutionary adaptations and extinction; 3) the relationship between physical agents shaping the fossil record and disentangling their role in order to detect genuine biodiversity signals in deep time; 

For my PhD I focused on Late Cretaceous dinosaur macroecology and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction. I have also studied Mesozoic marine reptiles from the Tethyan margin, crocodylomorph palaeodiversity, and theropod dinosaurs.

In March 2021 I joined Dr Sara Varela as an ERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Vigo, Spain, to investigate deep-time diversification dynamics. 

In February 2022 I started a Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Fellowship (Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, Spanish Government) in the same lab.

In August 2023 I have been awarded a Newton International Fellowship by The Royal Society allowing me to join University College London in March 2024 as an Independent Research Fellow.

Education