About me

Hi, I am Alex, welcome to my homepage!

I am a postdoctoral researcher in Palaeontology at the Ruhr University Bochum, Germany in the Department Sediment and Isotope Geology. On this website, you can learn about my past and ongoing research projects.

My research mainly focuses on better understanding phylogenetic relationships of fossil cephalopods. During my PhD at the Palaeontological Institute and Museum of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, I mainly studied Cambrian to Devonian “nautiloid” cephalopods, not only in terms of phylogeny, but also regarding their taxonomy and palaeobiology.

Fig. 1. Reconstruction of some Ordovician cephalopods. Credit: Evelyn Friesenbichler & Alexander Pohle

For my current postdoc project in Bochum, I now study coleoids, with a particular focus on the Mesozoic belemnites, attempting to reconstruct their evolution via modern phylogenetic tools. Furthermore, I am interested whether geochemical properties of belemnite rostra can be phylogenetically informative.

In my research, I use phylogenetic software such as BEAST2 and RevBayes and further statistical tools in R. I am always interested on how to improve methods of phylogenetic inference for morphological data.

Feel free to contact me if you are interested in my research or looking for collaboration.