At present I am funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action DEADSharks: Divergence times, Evolution, and Anatomy Deciphered in early Sharks. I am based at Naturalis Biodiversity Center in the Netherlands and hosted by Dr. Martin Rücklin .
In this project I am using 3D imaging methods to reveal for the first time the detailed skeletal morphology of Cretaceous sharks from the Chalk of the UK.
I am combining this information with genomic and morphological data from living sharks to try and understand how and when shark groups diverged, and gain an insight into the evolution of their feeding ecology.
The first publication from this is currently in preparation. A poster I presented on these results recently won the first place poster prize at NWO Life2024, a national Dutch Life Sciences research council conference.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101062426
