Julia Galan

I graduated on Geology by the University of Zaragoza in 2012 with honours, and I get my Master’s degree at the same university a year later. I also made my PhD thesis at the University of Zaragoza and finished it in 2019 with a maximum qualification of ‘Sobresaliente Cum Laude’ and International Mention. My investigation is mainly focused on Pleistocene and Holocene fossil bats (order Chiroptera). In this context, I have worked on several sites from the Atapuerca Complex, in Burgos (Spain) as well as some other Quaternary sites from Aragón and the Basque Country (also in Spain). My previous works treat three main aspects on Quaternary Iberian fossil bats: (1) palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic approaches based on fossil bat assemblages, (2) distinguishing the sibling species Myotis myotis/Myotis blythii by biometric analysis of the cranium and teeth, and (3) exploring the effect of ancient human settlements on coeval bat populations by analysing the fossil bat assemblages. My principal short and medium-term research goals are two: firstly, completing the knowledge on Quaternary fossil bats in the Iberian Peninsula by implementing the methodology I developed during my predoctoral research on new Iberian sites; secondly, analysing the Iberian record of Myotis myotis/Myotis blythii in order to clarify the process of speciation and geographic dispersion of both species during the Pleistocene.