Before joining the Royal Holloway University as a postdoctoral researcher, I completed a MSc in Earth Sciences in 2006 and a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences in 2009 entitled: “Stratigraphic and sedimentary context of the large-mammal sites of the central sector of the Guadix Basin (Betic Cordillera, Spain)” at the University of Granada (Spain). My Ph.D. research involved stratigraphy, sedimentology and biostratigraphy in continental Pliocene-Quaternary deposits in southern Spain. After a one-year postdoctoral research contract at the University of Granada, I recently joined the Royal Holloway as a member of the Ancient Human Occupation of Britain (AHOB 3) project.

Until April 2011, when I started my new position at the Royal Holloway, I developed all my academic life at the University of Granada (Spain). During the 5 years that my BSc in Geology lasted (1999-2004), I collaborated in paleontologic excavations (2001, 2002), and I started doing some research in collaboration with the Stratigraphy and Paleontology Department.  In 2003 I was awarded with a grant funded by the University of Granada to  carry out a study on ammonites morphology, and I developed a Cenozoic bivalves database in 2004 with a research collaboration grant awarded by the Spanish Government (M.E.C.).

My main interest is focused on the paleoenvironmental characterization of archeologic and paleontologic sites found in Pliocene and Quaternary continental settings.

Research Activities

I have experience in fieldwork in stratigraphy and sedimentology and in geochronology sampling (paleomagnetism, radioactive dating) and paleoecology. I have participated in two systematic archeologic/paleontologic excavations in the Orce area (Baza Basin, southern Spain). The activity I developed involved lithic industry and macrovertebrate systematic excavation, microvertebrate sieving and two days of paleomagnetic sampling in the area. Moreover, I have participated in a third systematic excavation in the Fonelas area (Guadix Basin, southern Spain) where I have excavated and restored Pleistocene large-mammal bones. My Ph.D. research was directly related to this site and to the rest of the paleontologic vertebrate sites involved in the Fonelas Project (please see webpage of the project for further information).I carried out the sedimentological analysis of the sites, in order to characterize, together with other previous taphonomic studies and the paleobiological inferences, the paleonvironment of the faunal associations.