Mr Roberto Portela Miguez

Mr Roberto Portela Miguez

Principal Curator; SCiC Mammals

ORCID: 0000-0003-3094-9949
Department: Collections
Division: Vertebrates
Specialisms: History of Collections, Mammal collections, Wet Curation, Marsupials, Monotremes, Taxidermy, Curation
Email: mammalgroup@nhm.ac.uk
  • Phone: +44(0) 207 942 5487

Summary

As Senior Curator in Charge of Mammals, my responsibilities involve the management of the dry(skulls, skeletons, skins) and fluid preserved collections of the Mammal Section at the Natural History Museum.

I also assist with answering collection-related enquiries, dealing with loan requests and the supervision of scientific visitors to the collections under my care.

My main interest is to promote and explore the mammal collections and therefore all my projects are collections-based.

The main taxonomic groups of my interest are rodents, bats, marsupials and monotremes, but I am open to collaborations in other groups too.

The Museum collection is critical for taxonomic and systematic research, but I also support work in other disciplines such as ecology, conservation, physiology, and anatomy among other.

Qualifications

Degrees

  • BA, University of Vigo, Spain, 1995 - 2001

Academic

  • Senior Curator in Charge of Mammals, Natural History Museum, Life Sciences, United Kingdom, 2017 - ongoing
  • Senior Curator, Mammal Section, Natural History Museum, Life Sciences, United Kingdom, 2016 - 2017
  • Curator, Mammal Section, Natural History Museum, Life Sciences, United Kingdom, 2008 - 2016
  • Curator, Mollusca and Lower Invertebrates Sections, Natural History Museum, Zoology Department, United Kingdom, 2006 - 2007
  • Curatorial Assistant, Reptiles, Fish and Amphibians Division, Natural History Museum, Zoology Department, United Kingdom, 2005 - 2006

Non-academic

  • Darwin Centre Guide, Natural History Museum, Learning, 2004 - 2005

Highlighted publications

  • Roos C, Knauf S, Chuma IS, Maille A, Callou C, Sabin R, Portela Miguez R, Zinner D (2021) New mitogenomic lineages in Papio baboons and their phylogeographic implications. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 174, 407 - 417. doi: 10.1002/ajpa.24186
  • Fabre A-C, Noirault E, Fernandez V, Portela-Miguez R, Goswami A (2020) Morphological integration of the skull in marsupials: impact of diet and locomotion. INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY 60, null - null.
  • Livingstone B, Kitchener AC, Hull G, Schwarz T, Vijayanathan S, Allen MJ, Liptovszky M, Miguez RP (2020) DIFFUSE IDIOPATHIC SKELETAL HYPEROSTOSIS IN CAPTIVE GORILLAS (GORILLA SPP.): APPEARANCES AND DIAGNOSIS. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine 51, doi: 10.1638/2019-0180
  • Roos C, M. Helgen K, Portela Miguez R, May Lay Thant N, Lwin N, Ko Lin A, Lin A, Mar Yi K, Soe P, Mar Hein Z, Nyein Nyein Myint M, Ahmed T, Chetry D, Urh M, Grace Veatch E, Duncan N, Kamminga P, A. H. Chua M, Yao L, Matauschek C, Meyer D, Liu Z-J, Li M, Nadler T, Fan P-F, Khac Quyet L, Hofreiter M, Zinner D, Momberg F (2020) Mitogenomic phylogeny of the Asian colobine genus <i>Trachypithecus</i> with special focus on <i>Trachypithecus phayrei</i> (Blyth, 1847) and description of a new species. Zoological Research 41, 656 - 669. doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2020.254
  • Cooper N, Bond AL, Davis JL, Portela Miguez R, Tomsett L, Helgen KM (2019) Sex biases in bird and mammal natural history collections. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286, 20192025 - 20192025. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.2025
  • Portela Miguez R (2019) Oldfield Thomas: In His Own Words.
  • Buerki S, Portela Miguez R (2018) Museum collections are the key to studying lemurs’ diet: gastrointestinal morphology of Cheirogaleus major. Systematics and Biodiversity 16, 483 - 487. doi: 10.1080/14772000.2018.1430708
  • Livingstone BN, Cooper JE, Viscardi P, Maybury K, Goodship A, Portela Miguez R (2017) Case Studies - Museums and Zoological Collections. Studies on the skeleton of 'Guy' at the NHM.. Gorilla Pathology and Health With a Catalogue of Preserved Materials. Academic Press null - null.
  • Meloro C, Hunter J, Tomsett L, Portela Miguez R, Prevosti FJ, Brown RP (2017) Evolutionary ecomorphology of the Falkland Islands wolf Dusicyon australis. Mammal Review 47, 159 - 163. doi: 10.1111/mam.12085
  • Soisook P, Struebig MJ, Noerfahmy S, Bernard H, Maryanto I, Chen S-F, Rossiter SJ, Kuo H-C, Deshpande K, Bates PJJ, Sykes D, Miguez RP (2015) Description of a New Species of theRhinolophus trifoliatus-Group (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae) from Southeast Asia. Acta Chiropterologica 17, 21 - 36. doi: 10.3161/15081109acc2015.17.1.002
  • Portela Miguez R (2006) The Spirit of the Museum. Porcupine Marine Natural History Society Newsletter 25 - 28.
  • Helgen KM, Portela Miguez R, Kohen J, Helgen L Twentieth century occurrence of the Long-Beaked Echidna Zaglossus bruijnii in the Kimberley region of Australia. ZooKeys 255, 103 - 132. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.255.3774
  • Martinez Q, Lebrun R, Achmadi AS, Esselstyn JA, Evans AR, Heaney LR, Miguez RP, Rowe KC, Fabre P-H Convergent evolution of an extreme dietary specialisation, the olfactory system of worm-eating rodents. Scientific Reports 8, doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-35827-0
  • Mead D, Fingland K, Cripps R, Portela Miguez R, Smith M, Corton C, Oliver K, Skelton J, Betteridge E, Dolucan J, Dudchenko O, Omer AD, Weisz D, Lieberman Aiden E, Fedrigo O, Mountcastle J, Jarvis E, McCarthy SA, Sims Y, Torrance J, Tracey A, Howe K, Challis R, Durbin R, Blaxter M The genome sequence of the Eurasian red squirrel, Sciurus vulgaris Linnaeus 1758. Wellcome Open Research 5, 18 - 18. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15679.1
  • Mead D, Fingland K, Cripps R, Portela Miguez R, Smith M, Corton C, Oliver K, Skelton J, Betteridge E, Doulcan J, Quail MA, McCarthy SA, Howe K, Sims Y, Torrance J, Tracey A, Challis R, Durbin R, Blaxter M The genome sequence of the eastern grey squirrel, Sciurus carolinensis Gmelin, 1788. Wellcome Open Research 5, 27 - 27. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15721.1
  • Mead D, Hailer F, Chadwick E, Portela Miguez R, Smith M, Corton C, Oliver K, Skelton J, Betteridge E, Doulcan JD, Dudchenko O, Omer A, Weisz D, Lieberman Aiden E, McCarthy S, Howe K, Sims Y, Torrance J, Tracey A, Challis R, Durbin R, Blaxter M The genome sequence of the Eurasian river otter, Lutra lutra Linnaeus 1758. Wellcome Open Research 5, 33 - 33. doi: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15722.1
  • TRAVOUILLON KJ, SIMÕES BF, MIGUEZ RP, BRACE S, BREWER P, STEMMER D, PRICE GJ, CRAMB J, LOUYS J Hidden in plain sight: reassessment of the pig-footed bandicoot, Chaeropus ecaudatus (Peramelemorphia, Chaeropodidae), with a description of a new species from central australia, and use of the fossil record to trace its past distribution. Zootaxa 4566, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.4566.1.1

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