J. Alberto Cruz

Alberto is a Mexican paleontologist who studies paleoecology, in particular, fossil amphibians and reptiles (toads, frogs, turtles, snakes, and lizards). His research seeks to understand the relationship between the current ecology and biogeography of small vertebrates to infer the environmental and climatic condition in the past at different paleontological sites in the Americas. At La Brea Tar Pits, Alberto is studying the fossil herpetofauna to infer the paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental condition in the Los Angeles area in the past and comparing that diversity with other asphaltic localities such as McKittrick and Carpinteria in California, as well as Talara in Peru.

He completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in Mexico, and continues that collaboration today. He has a PhD and MS in Biology from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM), and a BS in Biology from the National Polytechnic Institute (IPN) of Mexico.