RESEARCH INTERESTS
Articles, Books and Chapters
TITANOSAUR SAUROPOD OSTEODERMS
My first papers focused the unusual dermal armor (bones within skin) of titanosaurian sauropods, describing the gross and microanatomic structure (external, internal) Laurasian (northern continents) samples, using 3D reconstructions from CT data to elucidate an extraordinary function: a calcium source during eggshell formation.
SAUROPOD POSTCRANIAL FUNCTIONAL MORPHOLOGY AND BIOMECHANICS
During my dissertation I developed virtual paleontology models to reproduce the motion of the neck of living giraffes for the first time in order to model the Earth’s first high-browsers —sauropod dinosaurs. That research uncovered a novel osteological configuration in the sauropod pelvis that re-orients the presacral axial column, an adaptation that heralded their global radiation.
THEROPOD MORPHOLOGY AND FUNCTION
Collaborations include documenting, reconstructing skeletons and soft tissues as well as performing functional analyses of the theropod dinosaurs Concavenator and Pelecanimimus from the Early Cretaceous of Spain and Spinosaurus from North and West Africa.
VERTEBRATE FOSSILS DIGITIZATION
To build the skeletal mounts to perform all experiments, I go to the best possible source: the original fossilized bones. As time passes, more paleontologists are using stereophotogrammetry and computed tomography (CT) as main techniques, depending on the goal
