Julia Desojo

Biography

Julia Desojo was born in La Plata (Argentina), where she currently lives and works. She holds a research post at CONICET (Consejo nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas, Argentina’s equivalent of CNRS). Her thesis focused on the anatomy, phylogeny and biostratigraphy of South American aetosaurs (cousins of the dinosaurs). During her first post-doctorate in Argentina, she studied the cranial biomechanics of aetosaurs. In 2007, she moved to Munich on a Humboldt fellowship to study other Triassic reptiles, in particular rauisuchians. In 2009, she joined the vertebrate paleontology section of Argentina’s Museum of Natural Sciences. In 2016, she moved permanently to the vertebrate paleontology department of the Museum de La Plata and the Universidad Nacional de La Plata, where she now works and teaches. Her main interests are Triassic archosauriforms from around the world, with a focus on anatomy, phylogeny and paleobiology. Some of her research uses new technologies in paleobiology, such as quantitative paleohistology, CT scanning, geometric morphometry and finite element analysis. An important part of her research also involves fieldwork all over the world in search of new fossil remains of these fascinating reptiles. She succeeds in carrying out these various studies and projects thanks to the collaboration and cooperation of numerous national and international researchers, students and friends.

Conference: When did dinosaurs appear?

The origin of “real” dinosaurs has been estimated at around 230 million years ago, although the oldest dinosaur footprints indicate their presence some millions of years earlier. What was the landscape, temperature and vegetation like back then? Were climatic conditions the same all over the world? Paleontologists know that 250 Ma ago, most continents were grouped together in a supercontinent called Pangea. The fauna was made up of many animals other than dinosaurs. But today, many questions remain unanswered. For example, why did dinosaurs survive the end of the Triassic extinction? What evolutionary advantages did dinosaurs have over other reptiles? As paleontologists, we’re trying to reconstruct the evolution of dinosaurs, discover their precursors and study their relationship with their cousins the crocodiles. The Triassic period offers a unique window on the past, allowing us to travel back in time and gain an insight into the origins of dinosaurs and the environments in which they lived, hundreds of millions of years ago.