Joana Órfão

 
 

Profile

Research Group: RG2 – Ocean, coastal and land surface processes
Position at IDL: PhD Student
Job: PhD Student 
Email:  orfao.jo@gmail.com; joanaorfao@alunos.fc.ul.pt 
Room:  PaleoLab (6.4.72)


Academic Degree and field of specialization: 

  • 2021 (ongoing): PhD student at Instituto Dom Luiz, FCUL, Portugal (funded by the FCT grant UI/BD/151411/2021). Doctoral programme in Geology – Specialization in Paleontology and Stratigraphy.

  • 2017-2019: MSc. in Applied Ecology, University of Aveiro, Portugal.

Joana completed her MSc in Applied Ecology at the University of Aveiro in December 2019, with a thesis focused on the analysis of cranial morphological characters in captorhinids, a group of extinct tetrapods dating from the Permian-Carboniferous periods. Since October 2021, she has been a PhD student of Geology - Specialization in Paleontology and Stratigraphy - at the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Lisbon (Portugal), working as a researcher at the Dom Luiz Institute (Portugal) and collaborating with the Grupo de Biología Evolutiva - UNED (Spain). Joana’s PhD project is focused on the paleodiversity of sauropods, particularly during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition, in the peri-Atlantic and Tethys Sea area.

Keywords: vertebrate paleontology, paleodiversity, biogeography, species distribution modelling, macroevolution, evolutionary biology

 

Scientific Informations

ORCID: https://orcid.org/ 0000-0002-9732-4911

Researcher ID:  http://www.researcherid.com/rid/E-2783-2018

Research Gate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Joana-Orfao

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DV8cN4AAAAAJ&hl=en

Scientific Interests

Main Interests: Joana’s work and main interests focus on the use of different analytical techniques to identify, analyse, and interpret macroevolutionary trends in mesozoic vertebrate groups. Her topics of expertise are: paleobiodiversity, paleobiogeography, macroevolution, evolutionary biology, vertebrate paleontology, species distribution modeling, and programming (RStudio). Joana is also interested in the social context of science, not only in terms of scientific communication, but also how it intersects with social dimensions such as ethics and colonialism, diversity/equity/inclusion, and accessibility.

PhD subject / title: Joana’s PhD project is focused on the biodiversity and paleogeography of sauropods during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition, with emphasis on the application of SDMs and other biodiversity estimation techniques. It is titled “Sauropod biodiversity patterns during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition”. Her supervisors are Pedro Mocho (IDL/FCUL, Portugal) and Francisco Ortega (UNED, Spain).

 

Top 10 Publications: 

Órfão, Joana. 2019. On captorhinids: analysis of morphological characters with particular attention to skull sculpturing. Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal. [MSc thesis]

Conferences (last 15 presentations):

  • Órfão, Joana; Mocho, Pedro; Ortega, Francisco. 2023. Re-estimating biodiversity metrics on diplodocoid sauropods. XXXVIII Jornadas de la Sociedad Española de Paleontología, Valencia, Spain.

  • Órfão, Joana; Mocho, Pedro and Ortega, Francisco. 2023. Diplodocoid dinosaur biodiversity: everything everywhere all at once?. 20th Annual Conference of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, Sabadell, Spain.

  • Mocho, Pedro; Malafaia, Elisabete; Escaso, Fernando; Gasulla, J. M.; Marcos-Fernández, Fátima; Narváez, Iván; Órfão, Joana; Páramo, Adrian; Vidal, Daniel and Ortega, Francisco. 2023. The giant sauropod dinosaurs of Pombal: new discoveries. XI Congresso Nacional de Geologia, Coimbra, Portugal.

  • Órfão, Joana; Mocho, Pedro and Ortega, Francisco. 2022. Not as easy as it seems: the quality of fossil record data from online databases and how to use it in Palaeobiodiversity research. 1º PaleoPT, Lourinhã, Portugal.

  • Órfão, Joana; Mocho, Pedro and Ortega, Francisco. 2022. Species distribution models (SDMs) as a tool to research the Iberian sauropod diversity across the Jurassic-Cretaceous boundary". XX Encuentro de Jóvenes Investigadores en Paleontología, Cañaveral de León, Huelva, Spain.

  • Órfão, Joana and Castanhinha, Rui. 2020. Sculptured craniums and how to describe them in fossil vertebrates. GSA Connects 2020, U.S.A. (online)

  • Órfão, Joana and Castanhinha, Rui. 2019. Sculptured craniums and how to describe them in fossil vertebrates. XV Encontro Nacional de Biologia Evolutiva, Portugal.

Projects (10 most relevant): 

  • Órfão, Joana. Sauropod biodiversity patterns during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition. 2021. [ongoing; PhD thesis]

  • Órfão, Joana et al. Is skull sculpturing a good criterion to distinguish captorhinid taxa? 2020. [ongoing]

 

Awards:

  • Palaeontological’s Association Sylvester-Bradley Award (PA-SB202002): “On captorhinids: is skull sculpturing a good criterion to distinguish taxa?“