Lívia Frateles is a PhD student at the Federal University of Goiás who has recently joined our group at MNCN for a six-month term. Her research has focused on knowledge shortfalls since her master’s degree, where she aimed to understand how taxonomic uncertainty can bias the interpretation of mechanisms that drive important macroecological patterns, such as the Latitudinal Diversity Gradient, in New World coralsnake species.

In her PhD, supervised by José Alexandre F. Diniz-Filho and Gabriel Nakamura, Lívia continues to investigate biodiversity knowledge shortfalls and has expanded her research to encompass all described snake species. Additionally, she is interested in investigating how disparities between the Global North and South may bias scientific knowledge and influence our understanding of biodiversity patterns and their underlying processes.