Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra (PhD Duke University 1999; Habilitation University of Tübingen 2003) is professor of Palaeobiology at the University of Zurich and Director of its Department of Palaeontology; prior to that held positions at the Natural History Museum in London and the University of Tübingen. He is the author of Embryos in Deep Time (2012) and of The Process of Animal Domestication (2022) and editor several other books and journal volumes. He has worked on diverse aspects of vertebrate animal evolutionary morphology and palaeobiology (interview: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jez.b.23170). He leads with local colleagues regular palaeontological fieldwork in Venezuela. In a parallel line of research, he works on subjects concerning cultural macroevolution and archaeology of South America. His topical focus during his stay at KLI, other being open to diverse exchanges, is the natural and cultural history of the Orinoco River.