Exploring the Evolution of our Ancestors: On the Human Track

Author Biography

Dominique Adriaens obtained a PhD in Biology with research that focused on the functional morphology of the feeding apparatus in an African catfish species. His research focused on African catfish taxonomy and evolutionary morphology. He was appointed as an assistant professor in the Biology Department, advancing to full Professor in 2012 and Senior Full Professor in 2020. Adriaens is became the Director of the Museum of Zoology in the Faculty of Sciences and took over the leadership of the 'Evolutionary Morphology of Vertebrates' research group. His research focuses on the evolution of vertebrates, aiming to answer why animals look the way they do by examining how vertebrates have become adapted based on the anatomy of muscles and skeletal systems. His studies have been wide-ranging and include land-feeding catfish, jaw adaptations in Darwin's finches, specializations in African cichlids, tunnel-digging adaptations in African mole-rats, and the evolution of the prehensile tail in seahorses. Adriaens and his lab have published over 180 articles in international journals. He has supervised more than 20 Ph.D. students and presented at 34 international conferences and universities and participated in numerous other conferences. He is a Research Associate at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, oversees the Biology teacher training program and the faculty's Excellence Program in Sciences, chaired the Biology program, and serves as the Director of Studies for the Faculty of Sciences. Adriaens has diverse teaching experience including a course on the importance of primate ancestors and human evolution.