Yara Haridy is an Egyptian-Canadian paleontologist and scientific communicator who specializes in the use of advanced analytical methods to study the evolution of bone and related skeletal tissues.

Biography

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Haridy was born in Morocco and lived in Egypt until her family moved to Canada when she was 12 years old.[1] She obtained her B.Sc. in biology from the University of Toronto in 2016, where she originally intended to pursue the pre-medicine track en route to a medical career, followed by her M.Sc. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology obtained from the University of Toronto in 2018, where she studied the evolution of acrodonty in reptiles.[2] She obtained her Ph.D. from Humboldt University of Berlin and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin under the supervision of Florian Witzmann and Nadia Fröbisch in 2021.

Academic contributions

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Haridy's research primarily focuses on the evolution of bone and other skeletal tissues.[3] She has extensive experience studying the evolution of different forms of dentition and tooth replacement, primarily in extinct and extant reptiles, as well as paleopathologies. Her research methods include bone histology, computed tomography (CT), and focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM). Some of her most notable work includes the identification of the earliest occurrence of a viral-induced metabolic disease (Paget's disease),[4] the earliest occurrence of bone cancer (osteosarcoma) in an amniote (in the stem turtle Pappochelys),[5] and the morphological characterization of osteocytes in early fish that could be linked to physiological advantages of osteocytes that led to the modern-day prevalence of osteocytic bone among vertebrates.[6] Her work has been published in several leading international scientific journals, including Biology Letters,[7] Scientific Reports,[8] Systematic Biology,[9] Science Advances,[6] and JAMA Oncology,[5] with over 140 citations to date,[10] and has received extensive media coverage, including from international outlets such as National Geographic,[11] the New York Times,[12] the Smithsonian Magazine,[13] Science Magazine,[14] the Toronto Star,[15] and Newsweek.[16]

Outreach and scientific communication

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Haridy is an active scientific communicator who engages primarily through Twitter, where she has more than 21,000 followers and has created several viral hashtags related to her research, including #GuessTheSkull and #SerialKillerOrScientist, which have drawn media coverage.[17][18] Among her ongoing projects is the development of a Velociraptor puppet through a Palaeontological Association Engagement Grant.[19][20] She has been featured on a number of popular podcasts, including See Jurassic Right,[21] The Purrrcast,[22] and NPR's Short Wave[23] and is active in public outreach events, including Soapbox Science[24] and Skype a Scientist.[25][26] She is also a vocal advocate for improving equity in international scientific research through increased local collaboration and support of development of natural history infrastructure in non-western countries.[27][28]

References

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  1. ^ "Yara Haridy: The time traveler". Museum für Naturkunde. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  2. ^ Haridy, Yara (2018). Assessing Acrodont Dentition in Reptilia, with Special Attention to Replacement and Wear Adaptations. University of Toronto.
  3. ^ "YARA HARIDY". YARA HARIDY. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  4. ^ Haridy, Yara; Witzmann, Florian; Asbach, Patrick; Reisz, Robert R. (2019-08-07). "Permian metabolic bone disease revealed by micro CT: Paget's disease-like pathology in vertebrae of an early amniote". PLOS ONE. 14 (8): e0219662. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0219662. ISSN 1932-6203. PMC 6685605. PMID 31390345.
  5. ^ a b Haridy, Yara; Witzmann, Florian; Asbach, Patrick; Schoch, Rainer R.; Fröbisch, Nadia; Rothschild, Bruce M. (2019-03-01). "Triassic Cancer—Osteosarcoma in a 240-Million-Year-Old Stem-Turtle". JAMA Oncology. 5 (3): 425–426. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.6766. ISSN 2374-2437. PMC 6439844. PMID 30730547.
  6. ^ a b Haridy, Yara; Osenberg, Markus; Hilger, André; Manke, Ingo; Davesne, Donald; Witzmann, Florian (2021-04-02). "Bone metabolism and evolutionary origin of osteocytes: Novel application of FIB-SEM tomography". Science Advances. 7 (14): eabb9113. doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb9113. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 8011976. PMID 33789889.
  7. ^ Haridy, Yara; Gee, Bryan M.; Witzmann, Florian; Bevitt, Joseph J.; Reisz, Robert R. (2019-09-27). "Retention of fish-like odontode overgrowth in Permian tetrapod dentition supports outside-in theory of tooth origins". Biology Letters. 15 (9): 20190514. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2019.0514. PMC 6769137. PMID 31506034.
  8. ^ LeBlanc, A. R. H.; MacDougall, M. J.; Haridy, Y.; Scott, D.; Reisz, R. R. (2018-03-05). "Caudal autotomy as anti-predatory behavior in Palaeozoic reptiles". Scientific Reports. 8 (1): 3328. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-21526-3. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5838224. PMID 29507301.
  9. ^ Brocklehurst, Neil; Haridy, Yara (2021-06-16). "Do Meristic Characters Used in Phylogenetic Analysis Evolve in an Ordered Manner?". Systematic Biology. 70 (4): 707–718. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syaa078. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 33104202.
  10. ^ "Yara Haridy". scholar.google.de. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  11. ^ Black, Riley (2021-03-31). "Bones evolved to act like batteries, 400-million-year-old fish suggest". National Geographic. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  12. ^ Elbein, Asher (2019-02-07). "The Patient Had Bone Cancer. The Diagnosis Arrived 240 Million Years Too Late". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  13. ^ Katz, Brigit. "What This Prehistoric Turtle's Tumor Tells Scientists About Modern Cancer". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  14. ^ "Deadly human bone cancer found in 240-million-year-old turtle". www.science.org. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  15. ^ McQuigge, Michelle (2017-09-15). "Prehistoric frogs were predators with fangs, U of T researchers find". The Toronto Star. ISSN 0319-0781. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  16. ^ Pereira, Sydney (2018-03-07). "This tiny ancient reptile from 289 million years ago had a special trait that helped it escape meat-eating predators". Newsweek. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  17. ^ "Scientist or serial killer? Our favorite tweets exploring the strange overlap". www.advisory.com. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  18. ^ Heyman, Taylor (2018-06-18). "Serial killer or scientist? These tweets will leave you guessing". independent. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  19. ^ "Sci.Comm". YARA HARIDY. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  20. ^ "The Palaeontology Newsletter, Issue 104" (PDF). The Palaeontology Newsletter. 104. Palaeontological Association: 1–128.
  21. ^ "See Jurassic Right: Back to School with: Vertebrate Paleontologist Yara Haridy (#GuessTheSkull) on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  22. ^ "The Purrrcast: 275 - Yara Haridy - Kitty Passport on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  23. ^ "Taking A New Look At Some Old Bones". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  24. ^ "Soapbox Science 2019 Berlin". SoapboxScience. 2019-04-18. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  25. ^ "Skype a Scientist Live: Dinosaur Diseases with Yara Haridy". New York Space Grant Consortium. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  26. ^ Dinosaur Diseases with Yara Haridy, retrieved 2022-02-09
  27. ^ Elbein, Asher (2021-03-22). "Decolonizing the Hunt for Dinosaurs and Other Fossils". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-02-09.
  28. ^ Keim, Curtis; Somerville, Carolyn (2021-11-11). Mistaking Africa. New York: Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781003172024. ISBN 978-1-003-17202-4. S2CID 244065772.
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