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Mohd Shafi Bhat
PeerJ Author
Summary
I am interested in fossil vertebrate evolution using their morphology (taxonomy) and bone microstructure (histology) to reconstruct palaeobiology (e.g. feeding mechanism, growth regimes, lifestyle adaptations, and evolutionary trends) and palaeoecology.
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Work details
Postdoctoral fellow
University of Cape Town
Department of Biological Sciences
I am studying fossilised bone tissue (histology) of angulate tortoises from archaeological or historical sites of South Africa to deduce their palaeobiology (e.g. life history strategies and lifestyle adaptations). I am interested to assess age structure of archaeological bones selected by early humans and determine the season of death of the tortoise and deduce information about early human foraging behaviour. I am also working on bone histology of wide range of Late Permian dinocephalian taxa. These were large-bodied basal mammal-like graviportal animals that thrived more than 260 million years ago in the Tapinocephalus Assemblage Zone of the Karoo Basin of South Africa. The group includes carnivorous, herbivorous and omnivorous forms, of which herbivorous animals were the most abundant in the Permian fossil record. Until now, there has hardly been any comprehensive histological and microanatomical studies on these animals and very little is known about their life history and palaeobiology.