Francisca Carvalho

My main research interest is the study of diversity and evolution of marine organisms, with a special focus on deep-sea sponges. The specific research areas that interest me are taxonomy and systematics of sponges, their phylogenetic relationships and also their biogeographic patterns of distribution. During my master thesis I investigated the diversity, distribution and phylogenetic relationships of Lithistid sponge fauna of the Macaronesian islands and northeast Atlantic seamounts.