Yahoo! UK & Ireland Answers blog

- Carpincho (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), by Calimecita

To follow on our “Featured User” blog posts , we’re delighted this week to highlight an amazing member of our community, Cecilia, a.k.a Calimecita.

Cecila/Calmecita was born in Argentina and although she’s always lived there, her Welsh and Scottish ancestors triggered her interest for the English language she learnt as a child. Yahoo! Answers has been a great practice field for her!

In this series of posts, she’ll tell you about her country, her remarkable job as a mammalogist and of course her passion for Yahoo! Answers!

Ready to enter Cali-world?

“The small town where I live – City Bell – is near La Plata, one of the major Argentine cities. City Bell is a peaceful suburban place, with detached houses and large gardens, where everyone keeps pets and people still greet their neighbours when they pass each other on the street. ”

“I work at the Natural History Museum of La Plata, a neoclassical building with impressive collections, especially those of fossils, archaeological materials, and mammals.

The museum building has several structural problems, from plumbing to security to electricity, and it’s too crowded for comfort, but I still love the place.”

- The skeleton of a sea lion and the corresponding taxidermised specimen by Calimecita

- Dorado (Salminus maxillosus), large predator of the Paraná river system, by Calimecita

“I’m a biologist. Specifically I’m a mammalogist, so I study mammals. I’m currently in the last stages of my doctoral thesis thanks to a scholarship from the local university, so hopefully next year I’ll be Doctor Cali!”

- Tuco-tuco by Calimecita

“I study the digging specialisations of the tuco-tucos, a family of subterranean rodents that are native to South America. They’re small stocky things that look a lot like the pocket gophers from the US and the Old World mole rats, because they’re convergent, which means they occupy similar adaptive niches and have several common features that evolved in response to similar selective pressures.”

“Basically, what I do is compare them with other species to gather data about their morphological similarities and differences. This, together with other sources of information including fossils, helps to understand their evolutionary history.”

“There’s no fixed routine at work; sometimes I’m reading and writing, analyzing the data, etc. To obtain my data, I examine and measure their bones and muscles, which are quite different from ours. Tuco-tucos are specialized diggers, and they have very strong forelimbs with long claws and powerful muscles. If we had arms like that, we’d all look like super-super-heroes and we’d be able to dig our own homes!”

“Workwise, I also teach in the Vertebrates course at the local Faculty where I am a graduate teaching assistant and a basic Ecology course.”

In the next post we look at her interests and hobbies and learn more about what she likes the most on Yahoo! Answers.

Five of her great Answers:

What is a zoologist?

Do all mammals have hair?

Do you think science will ever bring back the Woolly Mammoth from extinction?

Do elephants have toenails?

What is the difference between a moth and butterfly?

Know someone who’s “wow-ed” you on Answers? Think somebody deserves to be celebrated as next Featured User on the Answers Blog? We want to hear from you!

Leave a comment below with a link to the user’s profile or best answer or email the Answers team y_answrs_team_uk@yahoo.co.uk