The research line of Dr. Alejandro Pérez Ramos is based on the application of new virtual methods to address different paleobiological and evolutionary aspects in Cenozoic faunas and their relationship with global climate change.
The main objective of the researcher from the University of Malaga (Spain) is to study the behavior of diapause (physiological state of inactivity for survival purposes, such as hibernation in bears) in large mammals using the paranasal sinuses as a new approach to infer basal metabolic rates by biomechanical and histological methods.
Through morphofunctional analysis of CT scans from different mammalian groups, virtual models of the tissue structures will be developed with the help of Flowgy Innovation to generate Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) models and calculate the air flows to quantify the mode of activation of the paranasal sinuses and, therefore, the amount of metabolites that could generate that activation.
The next step of the research line would be to expand the study to species of our own lineage such as Homo neanderthalensis, which would allow us to better understand the physiology and possible functional adaptations derived from the glacial climate in our ancestors.
