I am the Curator of Herpetology at the Natural History Museum of Denmark and Assistant Professor of Vertebrate Zoology at the University of Copenhagen. My research interests span macroevolution, convergent evolution, bio- and phylogeography, speciation, and systematics. I am particularly interested in the diversity of gigantic pseudo-insular systems, such as Madagascar and Africa’s Great Lakes, the processes involved in the generation and maintenance of that diversity, and the repeated evolution of particular phenotypes, especially extremely reduced body size. These questions are the main focus of work done in my lab.
Research
My research spans a wide range in scope, broadened still further by many collaborations. Previous work has included discoveries of fluorescence in chameleons and geckos, biogeography, phylogenomics and phylogenetics, descriptive and functional osteology, natural history, taxonomy, museomics, and ecomorphological evolution. My particular expertise is in the herpetofauna of Madagascar, where I have been conducting research since 2005, but I also dabble in reptiles and amphibians from across the world, and also a little bit in cichlid fishes.
One of my recent research foci has been the evolutionary systematics and taxonomy of microhylid frogs of the subfamily Cophylinae. These diverse and cryptic frogs present problems of identification which drive the search for new methodologies in taxonomy. I use micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) to examine osteology, and integrate descriptive and comparative osteology into taxonomic revisions and evolutionary reconstructions. I am currently also co-PI on a German Research Foundation (DFG) funded grant that aims to sequence thousands of nuclear genes from primary type material of these frogs, and integrate those muscomic data with micro-CT and other morphological data for species delimitation and taxonomy, as part of the DFG Priority Programme Taxon-OMICS.
Other taxa I am actively working on include mantellid frogs, chameleons, pseudoxyrhophiid snakes, mantellid frogs, and Lygodactylus geckos, especially in close collaboration with Miguel Vences and Frank Glaw.
Squamates Podcast
I co-host the SquaMates podcast, together with comic-artist Ethan Kocak, scientific illustrator Gabriel Ugueto, and snake researcher Hiral Naik. It’s a light-spirited science podcast. You can check it out at Squamatespod.com, or you can find it in most podcast-listening apps.
Anatomy Insights
Together with Katharina Ruthsatz and Miguel Vences, I have a YouTube channel called Anatomy Insights, where we post videos featuring anatomical dissection of various animal groups, aimed primarily at university students.
Private life and hobbies
My partner Dr Ella Z. Lattenkamp studies vocal learning in bats and is the Managing Director of Moving Child, a foundation working to decrease world-suck by supporting children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Together the two of us go on periodic adventures. Her website showcases these adventures, as well as her research. Have a look!
Photography has been a passion for me since my first visit to Madagascar in 2005. I use my research together with my photography to achieve better outcomes and increase publicity for the species and areas I study. You can see a showcase of my photography here.
I dance Lindy Hop and occasionally dabble in water colouring, but mostly I watch Star Trek and talk about Tolkien.