Morgane Fournier and I recently traveled to Madrid to visit the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, where we acquired an important new collection of Fire Salamander and Alpine Newt samples. Thanks to the invaluable support of Marta Calvo (curator of herpetology), Manuel Salesa (paleontologist), and Cristina Paradela (CT-scan specialist), we were able to obtain CT scans from several populations of Fire Salamanders and Alpine Newts.
These specimens are especially important for Morgane’s PhD project, as they represent an exceptional transect across Spain. They will complement the broader sampling effort we have conducted throughout Europe and will help investigate how life cycle variation and environmental factors influence morphological changes in Fire Salamanders and Alpine Newts.
Marta was an incredible help throughout our stay in Madrid, assisting us in locating specimens within the collections and sexing many of them. Cristina expertly managed the CT scanner and efficiently processed a remarkable number of salamanders and newts. Last but not least, Manolo provided the funding support that made the CT-scanning work possible.
This was truly a team effort, and the results will contribute to future conferences and several of Morgane’s PhD publications.
