News
2025
Read Publications
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Carnaval A, Zuppinger-Dingley D, … Pimiento C, … et al. Reflections for biodiversity researchers engaging with policy-science interfaces. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America: e70049. https://doi.org/10.1002/bes2.70049
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Somekh, L., Griffin, J.N., Pimiento, C. and Pearse, W.D., 2025. Integrating functional and phylogenetic perspectives reveals new priorities for bird and mammal conservation. bioRxiv, pp.2025-12. https://doi.org/10.64898/2025.12.10.690976
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Kocáková, K, Silvestro, D, Mathes, G, Villafaña, JA, Pimiento C†. Global extinction events and persistent age-dependency in sharks and rays over the past 145 million years. Proceedings B. 292 (2061): 20252272. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2025.2272
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Kocakova, K., Villafana, J., Gardiner, A., Mathes, G. and Pimiento, C†., 2025. FINS-A global occurrence dataset of fossil neoselachians from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary. bioRxiv, pp.2025-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.21.689757
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Mouton, T.L., Silvestro, D., Kocakova, K., Spitznagel, D., Leprieur, F. and Pimiento, C., 2025. Global gaps and priorities for shark and ray conservation: Integrating threat, function, and evolutionary distinctiveness. bioRxiv, pp.2025-11 doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.11.28.691085
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Pimiento C‡, Cortés, D, Valenzuela-Toro, A.M. Ocean Giants Through Time: Evolution and Ecology Intertwined. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 56: 491-519 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-102723-054842
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Smith JA,… Pimiento C,… et al. Identifying the big questions in paleontology: A community- driven project. Paleobiology. Paleobiology 51(3):408-431 https://doi.org.doi/10.1017/pab.2025.10042
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Mathes G, Pimiento C, Kiessling W, Svenning, JC, Steinbauer M,The effect of climate legacies on extinction dynamics: A systematic review. Cambridge Prisms: Extinction 3:e6. https://doi.org/10.1017/ext.2025.2
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Silvestro, D., Pimiento, C. Emerging uses of artificial intelligence in deep time biodiversity research. Nature Reviews Biodiversity https://doi.org/10.1038/s44358-025-00075-4
2024
Read Publications
Gendre M, Hauffe, T, Pimiento C, Silvestro, D. Benchmarking imputation methods for categorical biological data. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 00, 1–15 https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14339
New paper on a 3D, full-body reconstruction of the Megalodon
Our new paper has been published in Science Advances. Based on an exceptionally preserved specimen, we reconstructed the entire body shape of the extinct giant shark, the Megalodon. Our model further allowed us to infer movement and feeding ecology, revealing unprecedented swimming & prey intake abilities.
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Check our cool animated video summarising our study on our YouTube channel!
17.08.2022
New postdoc joining in September
We are delighted to welcome Gregor Mathes to our team. His research interests include conservation palaeontology, analytical macroecology, and data science. He applies novel statistical tools to the fossil record to gain insights about Earths history. Using this information about the past, he focuses on the conservation of recent biodiversity under current climate change.
27.05.2022
A perspective on a new research
An exciting, new study by Sibert and Rubin in Science based on deep sea core sediments suggests that today's low diversity of oceanic sharks might be the result of a dramatic and mysterious extinction event, ~19Ma.
Pimiento and Pyenson wrote a perspective on this finding, pointing out that such dramatic biodiversity loss feels like a déjà vu given that today, overfishing is causing an extinction of similar proportions (but at at a much faster rate) not only in the the open ocean, but also in shallow waters.
04.06.2021
Our new publication
We analysed the oldest fossil occurrences of all extant sharks and rays and found that while living genera extend 190 Ma,
species can go back in geologic time as far as 66Ma. Interestingly, species currently threatened with extinction have the oldest records.
02.11.2020
Catalina's career and research highlighted in the Colombian press
15.09.2020
The most read newspapers in Colombia, El Tiempo and El Espectador, published a profile of Catalina's career and her research on Megalodon.
We infer †O. megalodon body dimensions based on anatomical measurements of five ecologically and physiologically similar extant lamniforms. Our results suggest that a 16 m †O. megalodon likely had a head ~ 4.65 m long, a dorsal fin ~ 1.62 m tall and a tail ~ 3.85 m high. Morphometric analyses further suggest that its dorsal and caudal fins were adapted for swift predatory locomotion and long-swimming periods.
03.09.2020
