Research, field work & people

General research interests

Evolutionary morphology and palaeobiology of vertebrates
Development of soft and hard tissues of vertebrates (focus "integument")
Microanatomy and microstructural analysis of bone
Interaction of functional, phylogenetic, and structural aspects in vertebrates
(Palaeo-)Ecology of fossil and extant vertebrates
Evolution and Development in armor-bearing vertebrate groups (e.g. thyreophoran dinosaurs, turtles, crocodiles, placodont reptiles)
Biomechanics of extinct and extant vertebrates

Scan data

Placodont Psephoderma alpinum skull in virtual cross-section

Turtle evolution

Giant tortoise at Zoo Zurich

Fieldwork

Fieldwork in the badlands near Urumaco, Falcón State, Venezuela

Fieldwork and research visits

Beijing, China and provinces in southwestern China
Falcon state, Venezuela
Nevada, USA
Switzerland and southern Germany
South Africa
Seychelles / Aldabra Atoll

'THE CROCODILE IN A TREE'

The exhibition 'Krokodil im Baum'/'Crocodile in a tree' was an outreach activity of our group aiming at transmitting the notion of evolutionary trees to understand biodiversity and its origin, using crocodylians as main subject. Prof. Marcelo Sánchez used crocodylians as previous research results published by Scheyer et al. (2013) as the scientific basis for an AGORA grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation. The realization of the exhibit was coordinated by Life Science Zurich.

Following the closure of the special exhibit in the Zoological Museum of the University of Zurich, a virtual tour though the exhibit was made to digitally preserve the exhibit as a source of information for scholars and the public. A German and an English version of the virtual tour are available on the PIMUZ website. Image credits: Jorge Gonzalez

Marine vertebrate apex predators during the Griesbachian to Smithian interval (left) and the Spathian to Anisian interval (right). From Scheyer et al., 2014 (PloS ONE)

Image credits: Beat Scheffold

Life reconstruction of Palaeopython helveticus sp. nov. and other faunal elements of the Dielsdorf palaeoenvironment during the late middle–late Eocene. From Georgalis and Scheyer, 2019 (Swiss J Geosci). Image credits: Jaime Chirinos

Infographic to accompany the new study "Giant extinct caiman breaks constraint on the axial skeleton of extant crocodylians" just published in eLife (see Lab publications) for further information. Image credits: Jaime Chirinos

Life reconstruction of the giant freshwater turtle Stupenendemys geographicus from the Miocene of the northern Neotropics. From Cadena et al. 2020 (Sci Adv).

[Most popular media release from UZH in 2020]. Image credits: Jaime Chirinos

3D Reconstruction of Colobops noviportensis from the Triassic. In our study we re-interpreted the tiny skull as a rhynochcephalian (Lepidosauria), not a rhynchosaurian archosauromorph. From Scheyer et al. 2020 (R Soc Open Sci)

Graphical Abstract of Spiekman et al., 2020 (Current Biology)

Life reconstruction of the Pebas Formation faunal assemblage during the middle Miocene. From Carrillo-Briceño et al., 2021 (Swiss J Palaeontol). Image credits: Jaime Chirinos

Graphical Abstract of Herbst et al., 2021 (iScience)

Dr. Henning Richter and the team at DIRU, UZH, enabled X-raying the holotype of Prosantosaurus scheffoldi (photo: Vetsuisse-Fakultät, UZH / Michelle Aimée Oesch). The scanning of the fossil revealed that it held its lower arms crossed underneath the body, similar to the crossed arms on the famous sarcophagus of Pharao Tutanchamun; quite an unusual posture for pachypleurosaurs. The description of the new species was published in Klein et al., 2022 (Swiss J Palaeontol)

People

Lab Leader, lecturer

Prof. Dr. Torsten Scheyer

Visiting scientists

Prof. Dr. Julia Desojo

Technical staff

Postdocs

Dr. Jordan Bestwick

Doctoral students

Jonathan Poble, MSc

Masters students

Volunteers/Research interns

Lab alumni

Dr. Dylan Bastiaans, Natural History Museum Maastricht, The Netherlands
Chiara Zanatta, BSc
Sina Francine Dupuis, BSc
Dr. Marion Zahner (previous supervisor PD Dr. Winand Brinkmann, PIMUZ)
Adam Rytel (visiting PhD student 6 month internship, main supervisor Prof. Dr. Thomasz Sulej)
Dr. Eva Herbst (ETHZ)
Alexandre Torchet, BSc
Marine Andrey (practical internship)
Kehan Pan (Volunteer; MSc ETHZ)
Lukas Rothacher (Volunteer)
Katrin Kirwald, BSc
Patrizia Bregant, BSc
Dr. Georgios Georgalis, Krakow, Poland
Dr. Nicole Klein, Bonn, Germany (6 months 2022)
Dr. Stephan Spiekman, SMNS Stuttgart, Germany
Tobias Reich, Dipl-Biol
Dr. Ashley Latimer, France
Dr. Lin Wenbin, PKU Beijing (main supervisor Prof. Jiang Da-yong; three month visiting student at PIMUZ in 2017)
Dr. Wang Wei, MSc (student at IVPP, Beijing, main supervisor Prof. Li Chun; 1 year visiting student at PIMUZ in 2017-2018)
Dr. Christian Kolb (former technical assistent; now geoscientist at Naturkundliches Museum Göppingen, D)
Anna-Katharina Mautner, Vienna, Austria
Marta Ladeira, Ms Pharm. Sci. (former visiting scientist/volunteer)
Prof. Dr. Liu Jun (four month visiting at PIMUZ in 2019)
Feiko Miedema, BSc (part-time; MSc student Univ. Utrecht - six months project in 2018-2019)
Melanie Geier, BSc
Yohan Pochat, BSc (part-time; MSc student MNHN Paris - six months project in 2020)
Dr. James Neenan, Oxford, UK (guest researcher at PIMUZ, Univ. of Zurich)

PhD-committees of the PI

Romain Cottereau, MSc (main supervisor Dr. Valentin Fischer, Univ. Liège, Belgium)
Kinga Gere, MSc (main supervisor Dr. Attila Ösi, Eötvös Univ., Budapest, Hungary)
Antoine Laboury, MSc (main supervisor Dr. Valentin Fischer, Univ. Liège, Belgium)
Gabriel Cohen, MSc (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Evelyn Hüppi (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Daniel Nuñez (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Thodoris Argyriou (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Jorge Carrillo (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Juan Carrillo (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Laura Heck (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Jasmina Hugi, PH Schaffhausen, Switzerland (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Christian Kolb, PIMUZ (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Kristof Veitschegger (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
Dr. Ingmar Werneburg, University of Tübingen, Germany (main supervisor Prof. Marcelo Sánchez, PIMUZ)
External Reviewer of 10 PhD theses outside UZH

Co-supervision of former MSc theses

Iris Ehrbar (UZH), Madeleine Geiger (UZH), Vivien Jaquier (UZH), Patricia Meier (ETHZ), Fiona Straehl (UZH), Olivier Strauss (UZH),

Co-supervision of former BSc theses

Moritz Reisser (ETHZ)