Natália Simoni Porzio

I am graduated in Biological Sciences (2014), and have a master degree in Zoology (2017).

My Msc was developed in the Ornithology Department of the Museum of Science and Technology PUCRS. In this period I worked in a few projects regarding bird population richness in the Atlantic Forest and in Grasslands. 

The focus of my thesis was regarding the relationship between morphological traits (beak and body size), and the song structure from Neotropical seedeaters (Thraupidae: Sporophila) in an evolutionary context. 

Currently I am a PhD student in the University of Coimbra (Biosciences – Ecology). My thesis aims to determine the relative importance of sexual and natural selection over the evolution of complex signals (song, color and courtship behavior), and how they relate to speciation, in two families of passerine birds (Pipridae and Cardinalidae). The groups of study include an oscine (Cardinalidae) and suboscine (Pipridae) families distributed from South to North America with a widely variation in color, song and courtship behavior. As the two families differ in constraints for song production and elaboration of dance displays, I will use them in a comparative analysis for the evolution of extreme forms of signals.