UMA UMA
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Frank Thomas Ussner Dellinger

Faculty of Life Sciences

Estação de Biologia Marinha do Funchal, Floor 2

http://www.uma.pt/thd

thomas.dellinger@staff.uma.pt

Biographical Notes

I'm interested in behavioral ecology and evolution and have worked on a number of species, including seals, lizards, turtles, and insects. I seek to understand behavioral adaptations to the environment both in the sea as well as on land. I use a wide combination of methods, mostly in the field, including ecological and behavioral observation, data-logging and citizen science.
The most prominent working area are oceanic stage loggerhead sea turtles. Here I?m interested in understanding why juveniles turtles spend their most important growth phase in oligotrophic open ocean waters. How do they find feeding areas and food and what triggers their migratory paths. Other questions address human impact on and the conservation of these species.
A newer area deals with color polymorphism of the Madeira wall lizard and its role in sexual selection and intra-sexual competition.
Historical thematic excursions addressed the relevance of islands and specifically of Madeira Island in Darwin´s work and the Origin of Species.

Publications

- Drivers of continuous colour variation in the Madeiran wall lizard (Teira dugesii), Aguilar, Prem; Andrade, Pedro; Dellinger, Thomas; Carretero, Miguel Ángel; Pérez i de Lanuza, Guillem, 0024-406, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2024, 1

- New records of Oecanthus species (Orthoptera, Oecanthidae) in the Madeira archipelago, Hugo Miguel Silva; Laura Avivar-Lozano; Gonçalo Gomes; Howon Rhee; Thomas Dellinger; Dora Aguín-Pombo, 1082-6467, Journal of Orthoptera Research, 2024, 8

- Dietary variation is driven by landscape heterogeneity in an insular omnivorous endemic lizard, revealed by DNA metabarcoding, Rato, Catarina; Dellinger, Thomas; Carretero, Miguel A., 1424-2818, Diversity, 2022, 19

- Drivers of litter ingestion by sea turtles: Three decades of harmonised data from Atlantic Europe and the Mediterranean, Darmon, Gaëlle; Schulz, Marcus; Matiddi, Marco; Liria Loza, Ana; Tomás, Jesús; Camedda, Andrea; Chaieb, Olfa; El Hili, Hedia A.; Bradai, Mohamed N.; Bray, Laura; Claro, Françoise; Dellinger, Thomas; Dell?Amico, Florence; de Lucia, Giuseppe A.; Duncan, 0025-326X, Marine Pollution Bulletin, 2022, 1

- Long-term monitoring of in-water abundance of juvenile pelagic loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta): Population trends in relation to North Atlantic Oscillation and nesting, Dellinger, Thomas; Zekovic, Vladimir; Radeta, Marko, 2296-7745, Frontiers in Marine Science (accepted), 2022, 14

- Marine Litter ingested by Sea Turtles, Galgani, F., Darmon, G., Pham, C., Claro, F., Marques, N., Dellinger, T., and Gerigny, O., OSPAR, 2023: The 2023 Quality Status Report for the North-East Atlantic. OSPAR Commission, London, 2022

- Potential of MALDI TOF mass spectrometry for detection and quantification of corticosterone in the blood of loggerhead sea turtles, Houdová, Dominika; Popović, Iva; Dellinger, Thomas; Ne?ić, Maja; Petković, Marijana, 1387-3806, International Journal of Mass Spectrometry, 2022, 1

- Strong negative effects of recent wildfires on two endemic Macaronesian Bush-Crickets, Rhee, Howon; Hauth, Katharina; Greis, Kira; Elle, Ortwin; Dellinger, Thomas; Miller, Arthur; Hochkirch, Axel, Insect Conservation and Diversity, 2022

- Biologia Marinha, Dellinger, Thomas, Agência de Promoção da Cultura Atlântica (APCA - Madeira), 2021

- Haeckel, Ernst Heinrich Philipp August, Dellinger, Thomas, Agência de Promoção da Cultura Atlântica (APCA - Madeira), 2020

Academic Qualifications

- PhD in Biologia, 1991, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

- Master Degree in Biologia, 1987, Universität Konstanz

Current Duties

- Director of the Degree in - diretor.biologia.1c@mail.uma.pt