Samuel Zamora
I graduated in Geology from Zaragoza University in 2004 and obtained my doctorate from the same University in 2009 (funded by the Government of Aragón). My doctorate thesis entitle “Middle Cambrian echinoderms from the Iberian Chains and Cantabrian Zone (North Spain)”, was awarded the maximum score possible (Cum Laude) and won the Best Science Thesis prize from Faculty of Sciences (Zaragoza University) in 2010. I next spent 24 months as a postdoctoral researcher at the Natural History Museum (London) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education with the project “Tracing the origins of pentamery: fossil echinoderm stem groups and their importance for understanding the derivation of major new body plans”. My research in London focused on deciphering the early evolution of a major deuterostome group (echinoderms) in order to reveal the detailed pathways that gave rise to new body plans. My research was based on original field collections from various parts of the world (Spain, France, Italy, UK, Check Republic, Morocco, China, USA) and the fossils obtained were studied using a combination of traditional and state-of-the-art imaging techniques. By combining data from phylogenies, three-dimensional imaging, morphometrics and sequence stratigraphy I was able to document how key echinoderm lineages evolved and responded at critical times of global change, namely the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Diversification Ordovician Event. I am currently employed as a researcher by the Smithsonian Institution at the National Museum of Natural History (Washington DC). My duties are to develop an independent research project using the collections there, and I am pursuing a project entitled “The Early evolution of echinoderms and the timing of clade origination: A comparison between Gondwana and Laurentia”.
Education
2005 – 2009: PhD: “Middle Cambrian echinoderms from the Iberian Chains and the Cantabrian Zone (North Spain)”. University of Zaragoza; funded by Aragon Regional Government. Awarded as Best Science Thesis, Zaragoza University 2010.
2004 – 2005: Ms Thesis: “Cambrian echinoderms from the Tablado Range (Zaragoza Province, Spain)”
1998 – 2004: BSc: In Geological Sciences. University of Zaragoza, Spain
Career
January 2013 – Recent: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Paleobiology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
• Funded by the Smithsonian Institution.
• The Early evolution of echinoderms and the timing of clades origination: A comparison between Gondwana and Laurentia. Independent Research.
September 2010 – September 2012: Post-Doctoral Research, Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, UK.
• Funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Education awarded to S. Zamora (maximum graded in Earth Sciences).
• Tracing the origins of pentamery: fossil echinoderm stem groups and their importance for understanding the derivation of major new body plans. Supervisor: Andrew B. Smith.
Jan 2009 – June 2010: Palaeontological Consultant, University of Zaragoza
• Various works dealing with curation and protection of palaeontological heritage
September 2006 – June 2009: Teaching Assistant, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Zaragoza
• Teaching practicals and field work on Invertebrate Palaeontology and Zoology
1999 – 2003: Assistant in Palaeontological Excavations
• Working as volunteer in various palaeontological excavations run by universities and museums
Education
2005 – 2009: PhD: “Middle Cambrian echinoderms from the Iberian Chains and the Cantabrian Zone (North Spain)”. University of Zaragoza; funded by Aragon Regional Government. Awarded as Best Science Thesis, Zaragoza University 2010.
2004 – 2005: Ms Thesis: “Cambrian echinoderms from the Tablado Range (Zaragoza Province, Spain)”
1998 – 2004: BSc: In Geological Sciences. University of Zaragoza, Spain
Career
January 2013 – Recent: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Paleobiology Department, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.
• Funded by the Smithsonian Institution.
• The Early evolution of echinoderms and the timing of clades origination: A comparison between Gondwana and Laurentia. Independent Research.
September 2010 – September 2012: Post-Doctoral Research, Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, UK.
• Funded by Spanish Ministry of Science and Education awarded to S. Zamora (maximum graded in Earth Sciences).
• Tracing the origins of pentamery: fossil echinoderm stem groups and their importance for understanding the derivation of major new body plans. Supervisor: Andrew B. Smith.
Jan 2009 – June 2010: Palaeontological Consultant, University of Zaragoza
• Various works dealing with curation and protection of palaeontological heritage
September 2006 – June 2009: Teaching Assistant, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Zaragoza
• Teaching practicals and field work on Invertebrate Palaeontology and Zoology
1999 – 2003: Assistant in Palaeontological Excavations
• Working as volunteer in various palaeontological excavations run by universities and museums
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Papers by Samuel Zamora
endoskeleton with a unique microstructure, which is optimized
for multiple functions. For instance, some lightsensitive
ophiuroids (Ophiuroidea) and asteroids (Asteroidea)
possess skeletal plates with multi-lens arrays that are
thought to act as photosensory organs. The origins of these
lens-like microstructures have long been unclear. It was
recently proposed that the complex photosensory systems
in certain modern ophiuroids and asteroids could be traced
back to at least the Late Cretaceous (ca. 79 Ma). Here, we
document similar structures in ophiuroids and asteroids
from the Early Cretaceous of Poland (ca. 136 Ma) that are
approximately 57 million years older than the oldest asterozoans
with lens-like microstructures described thus far.
We use scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron tomography,
and electron backscatter diffraction combined with
focused ion beam microscopy to describe the morphology
and crystallography of these structures in exceptional detail. The results indicate that, similar to Recent light-sensitive
ophiuroids, putative microlenses in Cretaceous ophiuroids
and asteroids exhibit a shape and crystal orientation
that would have minimized spherical aberration and birefringence.
We suggest that these lens-like microstructures
evolved by secondary deposition of calcite on pre-existing
porous tubercle
disparity of novel body plans appearing in the Cambrian explosion.
from the middle Cambrian Spence Shale of Utah, USA, which is characterized by a high-diversity echinoderm fauna that inhabited relatively deepwater distal-ramp settings on a subsiding passive margin of Laurentia. The preferential orientation of specimens strongly suggests that all the animals were entombed by a single
unidirectional obrution event; the specimens were most likely derived from a nearby area and represent a single population that was living under the same environmental conditions. Statistical analysis of the thecal heights of specimens, taken as a proxy for age, reveals a bimodal distribution, suggesting that there were at
least two episodes of larval settling in the original population. This implies that gogiids displayed seasonal cycles of reproduction, as do many modern echinoderms in equivalent environmental settings. During ontogeny, the theca and stem of Gogia sp. grew by increasing the size of plates, as well as through the incorporation of new plates (e.g., in the sutures between existing ones). The brachioles, by contrast, were more conservative
developmentally, and the size of plates was maintained through ontogeny; they grew exclusively through the distal addition of new plates. The epispires, which were used for respiration, are more numerous in adults, as are the brachioles, indicating a degree of metabolic control on the development of these structures.
This study demonstrates that taxonomic studies of gogiids should, wherever possible, consider a large number of specimens encompassing a range of sizes in order to clearly distinguish between ontogenetic and interspecific morphological variation.
endoskeleton with a unique microstructure, which is optimized
for multiple functions. For instance, some lightsensitive
ophiuroids (Ophiuroidea) and asteroids (Asteroidea)
possess skeletal plates with multi-lens arrays that are
thought to act as photosensory organs. The origins of these
lens-like microstructures have long been unclear. It was
recently proposed that the complex photosensory systems
in certain modern ophiuroids and asteroids could be traced
back to at least the Late Cretaceous (ca. 79 Ma). Here, we
document similar structures in ophiuroids and asteroids
from the Early Cretaceous of Poland (ca. 136 Ma) that are
approximately 57 million years older than the oldest asterozoans
with lens-like microstructures described thus far.
We use scanning electron microscopy, synchrotron tomography,
and electron backscatter diffraction combined with
focused ion beam microscopy to describe the morphology
and crystallography of these structures in exceptional detail. The results indicate that, similar to Recent light-sensitive
ophiuroids, putative microlenses in Cretaceous ophiuroids
and asteroids exhibit a shape and crystal orientation
that would have minimized spherical aberration and birefringence.
We suggest that these lens-like microstructures
evolved by secondary deposition of calcite on pre-existing
porous tubercle
disparity of novel body plans appearing in the Cambrian explosion.
from the middle Cambrian Spence Shale of Utah, USA, which is characterized by a high-diversity echinoderm fauna that inhabited relatively deepwater distal-ramp settings on a subsiding passive margin of Laurentia. The preferential orientation of specimens strongly suggests that all the animals were entombed by a single
unidirectional obrution event; the specimens were most likely derived from a nearby area and represent a single population that was living under the same environmental conditions. Statistical analysis of the thecal heights of specimens, taken as a proxy for age, reveals a bimodal distribution, suggesting that there were at
least two episodes of larval settling in the original population. This implies that gogiids displayed seasonal cycles of reproduction, as do many modern echinoderms in equivalent environmental settings. During ontogeny, the theca and stem of Gogia sp. grew by increasing the size of plates, as well as through the incorporation of new plates (e.g., in the sutures between existing ones). The brachioles, by contrast, were more conservative
developmentally, and the size of plates was maintained through ontogeny; they grew exclusively through the distal addition of new plates. The epispires, which were used for respiration, are more numerous in adults, as are the brachioles, indicating a degree of metabolic control on the development of these structures.
This study demonstrates that taxonomic studies of gogiids should, wherever possible, consider a large number of specimens encompassing a range of sizes in order to clearly distinguish between ontogenetic and interspecific morphological variation.