Guilherme Miguel Caeiro Dias
PhD Student
I have particular interest in study herpetofauna's origin, evolution and conservation, mainly Iberian herpetofauna exploring investigation fields as Population Genetics, Phylogeography and Phylogenetics.
I finished my master in 2011 where I tried to assess Betic midwife toad (Alytes dickhilleni) genetic diversity as well as connectivity between fragmented populations and their viability, mainly under climatic change scenario.
It was enclosed in a broader project, where we intended to assess the importance of rear edge populations of some amphibian species from South of Iberian Peninsula, with fragmented populations, for biodiversity conservation under a climatic change scenario.
Currently I am developing my PhD project where I am employing a multidisciplinary approach exploring molecular tools together with the analysis of morphological and ecological data across different contact zones between Iberian Podarcis forms to identify barriers to gene flow, if present, understand how prezygotic and postzygotic isolation mechanisms act across different time scales, define potential patterns of introgression and identify phenotypic characters more prone to be under selection, expecting to contribute to better understand the emergence of reproductive isolation within Iberian wall lizards and elucidate the mechanisms involved in biological diversification in general.