I made my first contacts with the world of Paleontology in 2004, when I started collaborations (including support to lab) with the Paleontology Unit of the Department of Geology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, where I was coursing my BSc Degree in Geology. At the same time, I got my traineeship at Institut de Paleontologia de Sabadell (now known as Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont), and participated in my first paleontological excavations. Collaborations continued in the next year, when I obtained a summer grant to do some screen-whashing and work on microvertebrates for the first time. I completed my degree in 2006, and from the end of 2005 to the beginning of 2009 I worked as a field paleontologist, either as technician or as director of excavations in Catalonia (Spain). I obtained a predoctoral fellowship at Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont at the beginning of 2009, and a predoctoral grant (FPI) of the Spanish Government in October of the same year. I completed my DEA (“Diploma d’Estudis Avançats”, equivalent to a M.Sc. degree) in Paleontology by the end of 2009, and my Ph.D. degree in January of 2014, both in the faculty of Geology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

 

During the predoctoral period, I mainly devoted my research to the study of fossil lizards from the Iberian Peninsula under the supervision of Susan E. Evans (UCL, London, UK) and Àngel Galobart (ICP, Sabadell, Spain). My Ph.D. thesis focused on the evolutionary history of lizards on the Iberian Peninsula, and among the studied material were complete lizard specimens from the early Cretaceous, isolated remains from the Eocene, and skulls from the Miocene. My papers usually have a strong component of classical morphological description (as it is necessary for inedit material), but also include modern approaches, such as the use of programs to analyse the phylogenetic relationships of taxa (TNT and Paup) as well as the obtention of high resolution CT scans, and cover diverse aspects such as taxonomy, morphology, paleonvironment, paleoecology and paleobiogeography.

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I have just finished my postdoctoral position at University of Bristol as a Newton International Fellow with a project focused on the study of macroevolutionary patterns in squamates and other lepidosaurs, as informed from morphological discrete characters. In February of 2020 I started a three year long postdoctoral position at Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (Juan de la Cierva Incorporación Fellowship, funded by the Spanish Government) to study squamates and other herpetofaunal elements of primate bearing localities.

 

I believe that fieldwork is an essential part of paleontology, so I always try to find some time to go searching for fossils. I have participated in 40 excavations and prospections, in 17 of them as director.