Ph.D. in paleontology from the University of Montpellier, France, and a degree in biology with a concentration in zoology from the National University of San Marcos (UNMSM), Peru. Research associate, co-founder, and head of the Department of Vertebrate Paleontology at the Natural History Museum, UNMSM, Lima. Postdoctoral fellow at the Institut für Paläontologie und Paläontologisches Museum at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), Panama. Research Associate in the Division of Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), New York. He currently works as a researcher and professor at Cayetano Heredia University. At this institution, he is the coordinator of the Laboratory of Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution (LID-312) in the Faculty of Sciences and Engineering and of the Research Center for Integral and Sustainable Development (CIDIS), as well as the coordinator of the Doctorate in Life Sciences. He has been a National Geographic Society Explorer since 2018.

His research focuses on understanding the evolution of South American vertebrates through the fossil record and thus documenting changes in Neotropical ecosystems during the Cenozoic Era. He specializes in the anatomy, phylogeny, ecomorphology, historical biogeography, and extinction of aquatic crocodilians (true crocodiles, alligators, caimans, and gavials) and terrestrial crocodilians (Sebecidae) of the Neotropics, as well as the evolutionary history and ecology of xenarthran mammals, primarily sloths and glyptodonts. He is interested in the evolution and secondary adaptation of tetrapods to aquatic environments. He has published more than 90 scientific articles in international journals specializing in paleontology, earth sciences, and life sciences. He is the author of the book “Fossil Vertebrates of Peru: Archives on the Origin of Biodiversity.”