As part of my PhD work, I study the development of archosaurian brains including modern alligators and chickens to inform about key innovations in early archosaurian evolution. My work includes contrast-enhanced μCT-scanning, immunohistochemistry and HCR to understand what changes in development led to the morphologies we see today.

While brains are not available in the fossil record, braincase endocasts can convey a lot of information about brain shape in extinct taxa. I work with morphometric and phylogenetic methods to uncover evolutionary trends in archosauromorph brain morphology and inform about the relationship between form and function.

I am interested in early sphenodontians and the evolutionary timing of key changes in their cranial morphology. 

Freisem, L. S., Müller, J., Sues, H.-D., Sobral, G. (2024). A new sphenodontian (Diapsida: Lepidosauria) from the Upper Triassic (Norian) of Germany and its implications for the mode of sphenodontian evolution. BMC Ecology and Evolution 24, 35. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12862-024-02218-1