João Pedro Silva Kirmse
Doctoral candidate
I have Bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Brasília in Brazil, with a period spent at the University of Alberta in Canada. I have attained my Master's degree in Comparative Biology from the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, also in Brazil, with a period working at the University of Bristol in the UK. Currently I am a PhD candidate in Palaeobiology at the LMU under Prof. Oliver Rauhut.
- Scientific Assistant and PhD Candidate at the Department of Geo- and Environmental Sciences of the Faculty of Geosciences at the LMU
- 2019 Jackson School of Geosciences SVP Student Member Travel Grant
Research
My main interest is the anatomy, diversity, and evolution of early dinosaurs, with a strong focus on theropods. I work to understand the features of these Late Triassic and Early Jurassic taxa, and what this says about their species taxonomy and their phylogenetic relationships. My main current interest is the evolution and characteristics of the two main lineages of Neotheropods on the period before the Pliensbachian-Toarcian extinction event.
Early European Theropods
My current project includes the redescription of three European early theropods: Liliensternus liliensterni, Procompsognathus triassicus, and Dracoraptor hannigani. I am comparatively describing their features and incorporating the data into a phylogenetic character-matrix to see where these species are placed in the phylogenetic tree of early theropods and what this means for the evolution of Coelophysoidea and the line of Averostra.
Supervised by Prof. Oliver Rauhut and funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) Project 498194151 entitled “Early theropod dinosaurs from Europe: implications for the interrelationships of early theropods and the origin of Averostra” awarded to Prof. Rauhut.