Research interests (MHF)

My primary research interests are in the area of evolutionary ecology, encompassing a wide variety of problems related to the biological and climatic evolution of the Neogene–Quaternary Earth. My research revolves around understanding the relationships between climate and terrestrial vertebrate faunas. I am particularly interested in understanding the structure of Cenozoic mammal communities, integrating evolutionary and community ecology theories in studies with a multispecies perspective.

The focus of my current research is in the use of mammal faunas for high precision palaeoenvironmental inference, and in identifying key patterns and drivers of community evolution, particularly how and why mammal faunas vary as a function of environment, geologic age, biogeographic history, and taxonomic or functional group. My work is at the interfaces of several, more or less traditional, disciplines such as biogeography, climatology, evolutionary biology, geography, geology, macroecology, palaeontology and systematics. Much of my work comes from putting together information from two or more of these disciplines. My studies also provide extensive data sets for subsequent analyses on the evolution of mammalian lineages and the biogeography of different groups.


RESEARCH INTERESTS

  • Bioclimatology, Biochronology, Biogeography, Evolutionary Biology, Community Ecology, Ecomorphology, Evolution, Macroecology, Analytical Methodology, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 
  • Mammalia (Rodentia, Primates, Carnivora, Perissodactyla, Artiodactyla), Aves 
  • Neogene-Quaternary: Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene, Recent 
  • Regional (Iberian Peninsula -Spain, Portugal -, East Africa -Ethiopia, Kenya-, Pampean Region -Argentina-, Nearctic/Neotropic transition zone -USA, Mexico-), continental (Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Central America, North America, Australia), and global geographical scales

  

CURRENT RESEARCH

  • Neogene-Quaternary paleoclimatology 
  • Neogene-Quaternary mammal paleoecology 
  • Community-climate relationships in mammal faunas
  • Mammalian adaptive evolution to different climate regimes
  • Relationships between climatic changes and evolution of mammals
  • Global climatic change and future alterations in the community structure of land vertebrate faunas
  • Macroecological patterns in land vertebrates assemblages
  • Tools for popularization of Palaeontology and Evolution
     

POSTDOCTORAL PROJECTS


Title: Palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology and evolution of the Upper Neogene mammalian faunas from the Iberian Peninsula and eastern Africa: analysis of the influence of global climatic changes on mammalian biodiversity.

Investigador contratado "Programa Ramón y Cajal", financiado por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia
Organismo: Departamento de Paleontología, Facultad de Ciencias Geológicas (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Duración: 2005-2010 

 

Title: Bioclimatic analysis of large mammal faunas from the African Neogene-Quaternary.
Becario Fulbright en los EE.UU., financiado por el Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deportes
Organismo: Division of Vertebrate Paleontology (Peabody Museum of Natural History), Department of Geology and Geophysics (Yale University)
Duración: 2003-2004
Tutor: E.S. Vrba (Yale University)

 

Title: Palaeoclimatic analysis of the Miocene rodent faunas from Madrid.
Becario en la CAM., financiado por la Consejería de Educación de la Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid
Organismo: Departamento de Paleobiología, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas)
Duración: 2001-2003 
Tutor: J. Morales Romero (CSIC)