DUEÑAS CEDILLO, ALBA ROCIO

I have a Phd science from the Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas-I.P.N. My line of research focuses on the taxonomy, ecology, comparative anatomy, distribution and biogeography of the phylum Tardigrada. In Mexico, from 1911, the year of the first tardigrade record, until 2006, studies were carried out by foreigners, leaving more than a third of the country still unexplored. So my research has focused on the one hand on the exploration of areas, for the description and registration of species. Currently there is a collection of 2,800 slides of these animals, labeled, georeferenced, identified, and registered in a database. From a systematic collection in the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, the description of the species Minibiotus citlalium emerged, which was the basis for the subsequent analysis of cuticular pores of four species of Minibiotus, which provided new morphological characters for the identification of the species. In the different habitats of the Iztaccíhuatl volcano, I have recognized ecological assemblages that include low and high mountain species, the latter within the alpine tundra of the volcano, identifying Mexican species with potential extremophile capacities.