I am a student of palaeobiology at the School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. My research focuses on insect evolution. As the most diverse group of macroscopic life, insects represent evolution's greatest 'success story' unparalleled in the known geological history of Earth. Fossil insects provide invaluable data for studying textbook examples of fundamental evolutionary processes. I am interested in how insects and other arthropods can help shed light on major transitions in the history of life such as terrestrialisation, the origin of flowering plants, mass extinctions, climate change, and what this means for understanding and safeguarding biodiversity today.

Here you can find my modest publication list, PDFs, and an outline of my current and future projects.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Insect evolution: integrating fossil evidence and genomic data to understand the pattern and drivers of the evolutionary success of insects.
• The conquest of land: reconstructing the origin of terrestrial ecosystems, with focus on the earliest terrestrial arthropods and the oldest terrestrial floras.
  
• Beetle systematics and classification: currently working on the higher systematics of beetles, diverse 'microcoleopteran' families (revision of Alexiidae for a start), the systematic position of problematic extinct beetle lineages, and occasionally some other groups. Research of fossil beetles is based mainly on deposits with exceptional preservation (e.g., Burmese and Baltic ambers, Crato Formation). 

BIOGRAPHY

2020 - present School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol  (MSci Palaeontology and Evolution)

2018 - 2020 Department of Animal Science, Hartpury College, Hartpury, UK (Level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma)

2001 born in Brno, Czech Republic