People
Dr Daniel J. Field
Positions: Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology & Strickland Curator of Ornithology
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta, 🇨🇦
Undergraduate: University of British Columbia: Zoology
MPhil & PhD: Yale University: Geology & Geophysics
Predoctoral Fellowship: Smithsonian NMNH, Division of Birds
CV; Google Scholar; ResearchGate; Twitter
Daniel is an assistant professor of vertebrate palaeontology at the University of Cambridge (Department of Earth Sciences), and the Strickland Curator of Ornithology at the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology. He is also a research associate in palaeontology at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Natural History Museum (London), and a fellow of Christ's College Cambridge, where Charles Darwin spent his undergraduate years. Since 2019 he has held a UK Research and Innovation Future Leaders Fellowship.
Daniel uses the vertebrate fossil record to answer questions about how, where, and when Earth’s modern biodiversity arose. He is passionate about natural history, evolution, and science outreach, and enjoys photographing Earth’s vertebrate biodiversity in the field.
our lab has representatives from around the world, with interests ranging from palaeontology to phylogenetics to EMBRYOLOGY. we are united by a passion for understanding the origins of the present-day diversity of vertebrate animals, especially birds.
postdoctoral researchers
Dr Carla du Toit
cdt304[at]gmail.com
Position: Newton International Fellow, 2023-2025
Hometown: Cape Town, 🇿🇦
Undergraduate: University of Cape Town
PhD: FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Cape Town
Favourite Activities: Birding, walking her dog, wine tasting, travelling, writing
Carla is interested in the sensory ecology of birds, particularly their sense of touch using their beaks, and how we can combine methodological approaches to determine how extant birds perceive the world around them and find food. Furthermore, she uses comparative methods to examine the morphology of the beaks of extinct birds from fossils to answer questions about their palaeoecology and the evolutionary trends of some of the earliest known crown birds. Her research will focus primarily on seabirds, waterfowl and waders, both extant and extinct.
Dr Olivia Plateau
olivia.plateau[at]gmail.com
Position: Swiss Mobility Postdoc, 2023-2025
Hometown: Paris, 🇫🇷
Undergraduate: Sorbonne University (Pierre and Marie Curie Campus): Biology
Master’s: Sorbonne: Systematics, Evolution and Paleontology & Paris Cité University:
Interdisciplinary Approaches in Life Sciences
PhD: University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Favourite Activities: Travelling, Running, Winter walks in the mountains
Olivia is primarily interested in bird evolution and ontogeny, focusing on the study of avian skulls. Her main focus corresponds to the comparison of cranial bone morphology, organization and fusion between juveniles and adults of extant birds. To get better insight in the interaction between ontogeny and major evolutionary changes, she also compares extant birds with their extinct relatives.
Dr Junya Watanabe
jw2098[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: Newton International Fellow, 2019-2021
Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow, 2022-23
Hometown: Echizen, Fukui, 🇯🇵
Undergraduate, Master’s and PhD: Kyoto University: Science
Favourite Activities: Cycling, travelling
Junya’s research interests regard the influence of developmental factors on the evolution and
diversification of organisms. He aims to provide a framework for testing whether biases in microevolutionary variability have influenced macroevolutionary diversification patterns. As a case study, he plans to study a variety of marine birds and apply a combination of anatomical, morphometric, and comparative methods.
Dr Guillermo Navalon
gn315[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2021-2023
Hometown: Madrid, 🇪🇸
Undergraduate: Autonomous University of Madrid (BSc Biology)
Master's and PhD: University of Bristol (MSc and PhD)
Favourite Activities: Birdwatching, scuba diving, drawing, outdoor sports
Guillermo is interested in how evolution structures phenotypic diversity over large timescales.
In particular, he studies how intrinsic factors such as development interact with ecological factors
in macroevolution, focusing on the study of birds and their skeletal anatomy. To accomplish this, he works at several scales from macroevolutionary studies of phenotype across dozens of species to anatomical systematic research on fossils, mostly birds.
Albert “Chendytes” Chen
ac2318[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student, 2017-22
Junior Research Fellow, 2022-25
Hometown: Cleveland, Ohio, 🇺🇸
Undergraduate: University of Maryland: College Park, Geology
Master’s: University of Bristol: Palaeobiology
Favourite Activities: Reading, cartooning, birding, science communication
Albert’s primary interests lie in the function, ecology, and evolution of vertebrate animals (especially maniraptoran dinosaurs). He pursues palaeontology due to its ability to shed light on the origins of modern organisms and environments. For his PhD, he studies the anatomy and systematics of a variety of fossil birds and their close relatives.
Juan “The Guan” Benito
jb2284[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student, 2017-22
Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2022-23
Hometown: Barcelona, Catalonia, 🇪🇸
Undergraduate: Universitat de Barcelona: Biology
Master’s: Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona: Palaeontology
Favourite Activities: Craft beer, weird music, craft beer, craft beer
Juan is interested in evolution, phylogeny, and morphological disparity. For his PhD, Juan has been examining the postcranial morphology of crownward Mesozoic birds using high resolution three-dimensional data. His previous research focussed on often overlooked small vertebrates, including lepidosaurs and procolophonids.
graduate students
Lizzy Steell
ems207[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student (NERC C-CLEAR DTP), 2019-
Hometown: Olney, Buckinghamshire, 🇬🇧
Undergraduate: University College London: Zoology
Master’s: University College London: Zoology
Favourite Activities: Travel, running, birding, reading
Lizzy combines insights from zoology and palaeontology by working on extinct and living taxa. She is interested in the evolutionary history of hyper-diverse vertebrate groups, especially when and how they evolved their specialised characteristics. Lizzy’s PhD applies comparative morphology and phylogenetics to study the evolution of the most diverse order of birds, the passerines.
Pei-Chen Kuo
pck30[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: Cambridge-Taiwan Scholarship PhD student, 2020-
Hometown: Taipei, 🇹🇼
Undergraduate: National Taiwan Uni.: Geosciences & Anthropology
Master’s: University Edinburgh: Palaeontology & Geobiology (MScR)
Favourite Activities: Watching movies, badminton, travelling
Pei-Chen is interested in the evolution of specialised anatomical adaptations. For his PhD, he is
investigating the evolution of morphology in the avian feeding apparatus, employing sophisticated geometric analyses to incorporate living and fossil birds into a single evolutionary framework.
Klara "The Kea" Widrig
kew66[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: MPhil student, 2019-20
Cambridge Gates Scholarship PhD student, 2020-
Hometown: Lyon Mountain, New York, 🇺🇸
Undergraduate: McGill University: Biology
Master’s: Cambridge: Earth Sciences
Favourite Activities: Running, hiking, illustration, calligraphy, visiting museums,
showing off pictures of her cat, archery
Klara is interested in major evolutionary transitions in vertebrates, particularly the evolution of flight. She is investigating the evolution of the major avian clade Palaeognathae (ratites and kin) from the perspective of the fossil record.
Armin Schmitt
Position: Cambridge Trust PhD student, 2020-
Hometown: Friedrichshafen, 🇩🇪
Undergraduate: University of Mainz: Geology & Palaeontology
Master’s: University of Bonn, Geology & Palaeontology (Diplom)
Favourite Activities: Cooking, painting, travelling, cinema
Armin is interested in genome size evolution throughout the evolutionary history of birds. He is interested in the application of high-resolution synchrotron microtomography data to palaeontology, and its potential to reveal internal bone structures which may relate to physiology. In his master’s thesis he applied 3D modelling software to segment cranial endosseous structures in sauropodomorph dinosaurs to infer habitual head and neck posture from the size and shape of the labyrinths (inner ear) of these long-necked sauropods, whose unique body plan has no analogy in today’s animal kingdom.
Oliver Demuth
oed24[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student, 2020-
Hometown: Zürich, 🇨🇭
Undergraduate: Zurich Uni of the Arts: Design, Scientific Visualization
Master’s: University of Bristol, Palaeobiology
Favourite Activities: Drawing, painting, travelling, hiking, fieldwork
Twitter; Oliver’s personal website
Oliver is interested in functional morphology and how it relates to the locomotion of living and extinct reptiles (including birds). His previous work focused on three-dimensional computational modelling techniques to investigate the postural evolution of archosaurs as well as locomotory biomechanics of extinct and extant reptiles and myological reconstructions of extinct taxa. Oliver is also a scientific illustrator and has published illustrations in research articles and the international media. With his illustrations and 3D models he has also participated in several exhibitions in Europe and North America.
Grace Burton
mgpb3[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: MPhil Student, 2021-22
Harding Distinguished Postgraduate Scholarship PhD student, 2022-
Hometown: Streatham, London, 🇬🇧
Undergraduate: Imperial College London, Biological Sciences
Favourite Activities: Piano, jigsaw puzzling, visiting museums
Grace is interested in vertebrate phylogeny and key evolutionary transitions. She is working on understanding the internal architecture of the bird skeleton, and is especially interested in deriving new anatomical insights from 3D modelling techniques. Her previous research has focused on the evolution of early jawed vertebrates, including placoderms.
Katrina van Grouw
kv340[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD student, 2021-
Hometown: Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, 🇬🇧
Undergraduate: University of Plymouth
Master's: Royal College of Art
Favourite Activities: Writing; keeping birds; a million things to do with bird skeletons,
museums, and specimen preparation; walking on the downs with her dog; visiting pubs.
Katrina has a longstanding involvement with birds and comparative anatomy, and has written and
illustrated several outstanding books on these topics. For her PhD Katrina is interested in the mysterious extinct seabird clade Pelagornithidae, the bony-toothed birds, and hopes to shed new light on their ecology and evolutionary history.
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Annabel Hunt
akh56[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student, 2022-
Hometown: Devon, UK, 🇬🇧
Undergraduate: University of Oxford, Earth Sciences (MEarthSci)
Favourite Activities: Assisting with dinosaur digs, preparing fossils, hiking, swimming, kayaking
Annabel is passionate about using micro-computed tomography to reveal novel anatomical features of fossil vertebrates and to use these observations to study morphological evolution and phylogenetic relationships. She is using her prior knowledge of early reptilian palates, and her experience segmenting bone from CT scans, to study the evolution of the palate in stem-group birds. Annabel is co-supervised by Dr Joseph Sertich (Affiliate Professor, Department of Geosciences, Colorado State University).
Bassel Arnaout
ba419[at]cam.ac.uk
Position: PhD Student, 2021-
Hometown: Damascus, 🇸🇾
Undergraduate: Brock University
Master's: Carleton University
Favourite Activities: Thinking about evolutionary theory, birding, playing the piano,
cycling, waltzing, reading.
Bassel is passionate about phenotypic evolution both at the micro and macro levels, and considers bird skulls to be a perfect bridge between these scales. To understand phenotypic evolution, he learns from embryonic development—the biological process that assembles phenotypes, and one that can resemble the evolutionary process. He is currently using his backgrounds in embryology (evo-devo), zoology, and palaeontology to understand the evolution of the skull in Galloanserae.
Undergraduate students
Sophie Truepenny
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Rachel Barham
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Astrid Xu
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Charlotte McConnell
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Georgina Scott
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Charles Wolrige Gordon
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Kirsty Mellor
Position: Zoology Part II project Student, 2022-23
Lab Alumni
Abi Crane
Position: MPhil Student, 2021-22
Abi's Research: Abi investigated the morphology of the mandible of early-diverging bird groups with an emphasis on phylogenetic implications for the ‘wonderchicken’, Asteriornis maastrichtensis. She has moved onto a PhD at the University of Southampton.
Emily Smith
Position: Zoology Part II project student, 2021-22
Emily's Research: Emily investigated the internal architecture of avian long bones from a structural perspective.
Natalie Rose
Position: Zoology Part II project student, 2021-22
Natalie's Research: Natalie investigated patterns of ossification in the embryonic skulls of birds.
Alexandra Davies
Position: Zoology Part II project student, 2021-22
Alex's Research: Alex investigated the morphology of the tongue apparatus in sunbirds (Nectariniidae).
Joel Gayford
Position: Zoology Part II project student, 2021-22
Joe's Research: Joel investigated ontogenetic shifts in patterns of allometric growth in sharks.
Louis Fisher
Position: Zoology Part II project student, 2021-22
Louis' Research: Louis investigated comparative aspects of bone fusion in the bird skull.
Dr Neil Brocklehurst
Position: UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2021-2022
Neil's Research: Neil investigated major patterns early in bird evolutionary history, investigating support for alternative phylogenetic arrangements of deep neornithine lineages and support for alternative temporal scenarios of bird diversification.
Simon Ducatez
Position: UKRI Postdoctoral Research Associate, 2020-2022
Simon's Research: Simon investigated the evolution of life history strategies during his postdoc, and has now begun a faculty position in Tahiti(!) at the University of French Polynesia.
Matthieu Chotard
Position: Visiting Research Master’s Student, 2021
Matthieu's Research: Matthieu joined our lab for six months, studying the evolution of avian tarsus morphology while on exchange from Université de Rennes 1.
Garance Robin
Position: Visiting Research Master’s Student, 2020
Garance’s Research: Garance joined our lab for six months, studying the evolution of bird body size while on exchange from Université de Rennes 1.
Kit Baker
Position: MESc student, 2019-2020
Kit’s Research: Kit studied the morphology of Cretaceous avialans using high resolution three-dimensional visualisation techniques.
Dr Jake Berv
Position: Visiting NSF Graduate Fellow, Cornell University, 2018
Jake's Research: Jake and Daniel continue to collaborate on a number of projects related to exploring the interface between micro and macroevolution, and avian palaeontology. Jake is currently a Michigan Fellow at the University of Michigan.
Dania Kewbank
Position: Undergraduate Final-year Student, 2018
Dania’s Research: Dania studied the pelvic morphology of bird-like dinosaurs using high-resolution visualisation techniques.
Jake Callaghan
Position: Undergraduate Final-year Student, 2017
Jake’s Research: Jake dove into the world of Bayesian phylogenetics to investigate the higher-order interrelationships of living birds and their survival patterns across the K-Pg boundary.
Georgina Halford
Position: Undergraduate Final-year Student, 2017
Georgina’s Research: Georgina examined the evolution of the avian hindlimb by working with high-resolution three-dimensional scans of Mesozoic avialan legs.
Jono Gooch
Position: Undergraduate Final-year Student, 2017
Jono’s Research: Jono studied the anatomy of early amniotes to gain a clearer understanding of how vertebrates originally became specialised for life on dry land.
Joe Hardy
Position: Undergraduate Final-year Student, 2017
Joe’s Research: Joe’s work was focused on the anatomy of the wings of Mesozoic Avialae.
