Laboratory for Taxonomy and Evolution of Reptiles and Amphibians (LaTERA)
Daniel Jablonski, lab head
Current members
Internal Ph.D. students
Misbah Khousar, Pakistani student working on the diversity of herpetofauna in Pakistan, mostly the Laudakia genus.
Martina Lawson has a deep passion for studying the anguids belonging to the Dopasia genus. This interest began during her undergraduate and master's theses, both of which focused on this group of legless lizards. Currently, Martina is pursuing a Ph.D. project centered around these fascinating reptiles.
Martin Raffaj's research revolves around the distribution modeling of snakes in Central Europe. His initial foray into this field started with his undergraduate thesis, which specifically examined the distribution patterns of Zamenis longissimus in Slovakia. Now as a Ph.D. student, Martin is further investigating the distributional patterns of amphibians and reptiles across Slovakia.
External Ph.D. students
Faizurrahman Khalili, Afghan student from Faculty of Science and Letters, Pamukkale University, Denizli, Turkiye working on the herpetofauna of Takhar Province.
MSc. students
none
BSc. students
Viktória Niki Iliopoulos - venoms of non-venomous snakes with the focus on the genus Natrix.
Graduating students (former members)
Adam Javorčík - phylogeny and phylogeography of snakes, with a particular focus on the Dolichophis genus. In his master's thesis, Adam delved into the phylogeography of Anguis colchica.
Simona Papežík - morphological and osteological aspects of Natrix tessellata in the Balkans.
Petr Papežík - studied the genetic diversity of the genus Pelophylax in the Balkans.
Laura Mičeková studied the genetic diversity of Xerotypthlops vermicularis in the Balkans and the osteology of two cryptic taxa of the genus.
Jakub Vrbňák has a keen interest in studying blood parasites found in water frogs within the Western Palearctic region. This fascination began during his undergraduate studies, where he focused on blood parasites of amphibians and reptiles in the same geographical area. For his master's thesis, he specifically examined blood parasites of water frogs, successfully completing his research in this field.
Petr Balej - an external student with a bachelor thesis on the microrefugia of amphibians and reptiles in the Balkan Peninsula.
Mária Hároníková - bachelor thesis about distribution and genetics of turtles in Slovakia.
Zuzana Ježová - bachelor thesis about the ecology of turtles in Slovakia.
Matúš Meszároš - unfinished bachelor project regarding the ecology of the genus Anguis in Slovakia.
Lucia Švecová - bachelor thesis about the distribution of N. natrix and Natrix tessellata in Slovakia.
Technician support
Jana Poláková - DNA isolation, PCR lab, great person & hard worker.
