Dr Alienor Duhamel
Postdoctoral Fellow
Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand
Biography
I was born in France and started my studies in general sciences in 2011 in Nantes, before moving to the Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon and to the University of Lyon 1 for a Bachelor in Geosciences and Master in Paleontology, from 2014 to 2017. Between 2016 and 2018 I was coming regularly to the ESI to work on a therapsid group called Biarmosuchia, I was coming regularly to the ESI. In 2018, I permanently moved to Johannesburg for my PhD on therapsid taxonomy and phylogeny. I graduated in 2023 and now working as a postdoctoral fellow at the ESI.
Disciplines
3D Paleontology
Fields of study
I work on a group called Therapsida, that are considered to be the stem-group of mammals and lived mainly during the Permian and Triassic Periods. I specialised on microCT-scan data and 3D reconstruction of therapsid cranial material (Virtual Paleontology). My models enable me to study the endocranial anatomy of those animals, and to infer their phylogenetic relationships. I produce my phylogenies using both parsimony (TNT) and Bayesian methods (MrBayes mainly)
Awards and recognition
- Jackson School of Geosciences Travel Award 2021, from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology
- 1st prize for the best PhD student presentation at the 4th Imaging with Radiation conference
