Full Professor, University of Granada
Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología
Facultad de Ciencias
Universidad de Granada
Avenida Fuentenueva s/n
18071 Granada (Spain)
Instituto Andaluz de Ciencias de la Tierra (IACT)
CSIC- Universidad de Granada
Av. de las Palmeras, 4
18100 Armilla, Granada.
Tel. +34-958-243201
E-mail: acheca@ugr.es
Biography
Antonio Checa received his PhD in Geology in 1984 from the University of Granada, and since 2000 he has been Full Professor of Paleontology at the same university. His main present research interest is the biomineralization of calcifying aquatic proto and metazoans: foraminifers, molluscs, arthropods, polychaetes, bryozoans and others. The scope of this research is wide, and includes the nanostructure and crystallography of biocrystals, the interaction between organic matrices and biominerals, the strategies used by animals to fabricate their calcified microstructures and, as a paleontologist, the evolution of the different types of skeletons since their emergence, some 540 million years ago.