FCT.NOVA, CEEC junior researcher
Maria Rios Ibáñez is a vertebrate palaeontologist with a special focus on Cenozoic mammal systematics and evolution. One of the main topics of her research is the macroevolutionary analysis of the giraffid lineage. She obtained her Graduate Degree in Biological Sciences and her MSc in Biodiversity: Conservation and Evolution with a speciality in Animal Diversity from the Universidad de Valencia in 2013, and her PhD. in Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology in 2017. She conducted her doctoral studies in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Madrid (Spain), supported by the MINECO-FPI doctoral fellowships. Currently, she is a Junior Researcher at the Earth Sciences Department and GeoBioTec at NOVA School Of Science And Technology, granted by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (Portugal, CEECIND/02199/2018). Her current research includes the in-depth study of giraffid evolution as well as the systematic analysis of the Miocene giraffoid ruminants of the Siwaliks (Pakistan). She is also currently running the project EXPL/CTA-PAL/0832/2021 “Seasonal cyclicity and high-resolution paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Miocene of Portugal unlocked by trace elements and stable isotopes in modern and fossil proboscideans” and belongs to the Lothagam Research Project as a senior researcher which focuses on the Late Miocene of the Turkana Basin (Kenya). She has also been elected as Scientific and Curatorial Manager at the Museu da Lourinhã and is a member of the Organizing Committee of the Palaeontological Virtual Congress.
Giraffidae, Ruminantia, Macroevolution, Phylogeny, Paleoenviontments, Paleoecology, Eastern African mammals
CRESPO, V. D., RIOS, M., AND RUIZ-SÁNCHEZ, F. J. 2022. Cainotheriids vs. lagomorphs: study of their ecological niche partitioning during the early Miocene of the Ribesalbes-Alcora Basin (Castelló, Spain). Historical Biology (2022): 1-11.
KHAN, M.A., BABAR, M.A., AND RIOS, M. 2021. New Material of Bramatherium grande from the Siwaliks of Pakistan sheds light on dental intra-clade morphological variability of Late Miocene sivatheres. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41.1 (2021): e1898976.
RIOS, M., MONTOYA, P., MORALES, J. AND ROMERO, G. 2021. First occurrence of Sivatherium Falconer and Cautley, 1836 (Mammalia, Ruminantia, Giraffidae) in the Iberian Peninsula. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41.3 (2021): e1985507.
