Nicole is a biologist with a background in biomedical physics (MSc) and evolutionary anthropology (PhD). She is interested in a broad range of evolutionary questions related both to torso and pelvis morphology in primates.
During her PhD in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid, she investigated the thoraco-pelvic covariation patterns shared by moderns humans and chimpanzees and their potential to shed light on the human body shape evolution. She also focused on the virtual reconstruction of missing structures of the torso of extinct Homo species, developing and applying innovative methods and protocols.
She is a strong advocate for open science and data sharing, and in 2021 she received the “Award for Open Science in Practice by a PhD student”, awarded by the Society for Open, Reliable and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology (SORTEE). She is also an ambassador of Center for Open Science (COS).
In May 2019 she came to the School of Life and Health Sciences at the University of Roehampton to deliver a 2-day workshop on virtual anthropology techniques. In January 2022 she returned to the University of Roehampton as a post-doctoral researcher within the Leverhulme Trust project ‘Solving the evolutionary puzzle of human childbirth’ with Dr. Lia Betti and Dr. Todd Rae, to investigate primate pelvic evolution in the context of different selective pressures.
PUBLICATIONS (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2504-3886)
2020 Torres-Tamayo, N., Martelli, S., Schlager, S., García-Martínez, D., Sanchis-Gimeno, J.A., Mata Escolano, F., Nalla, S., Ogihara, N., Oishi, M., Bastir, M. Assessing thoraco-pelvic covariation in Homo sapiens and Pan troglodytes: A 3D geometric morphometric approach. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 173, 514-534.
2020 Torres-Tamayo, N., Schlager, S., García-Martínez, D., Sanchis-Gimeno, J.A., Nalla, S., Ogihara, N., Oishi, M., Martelli, S., Bastir, M. (2020). 3D geometric morphometrics of thorax-pelvis covariation and its potential for predicting the thorax morphology: A case study on Kebara 2 Neandertal. Journal of Human Evolution, 147, 102893.
2018 Torres-Tamayo, N., García-Martínez, D., Nalla, S., Barash, A., Williams, S.A., Blanco-Pérez, E., Mata-Escolano, F., Sanchis-Gimeno, J.A., Bastir, M. The torso integration hypothesis revisited in Homo sapiens: contributions to the understanding of hominin body shape evolution. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 167(4):777-790.
2018 Torres–Tamayo, N., García-Martínez, D., Lois-Zlolniski, S., Torres-Sánchez, I., García-Río, F., & Bastir, M. 3D analysis of sexual dimorphism in size, shape and breathing kinematics of human lungs. Journal of Anatomy, 232(2), pp. 227-237.
