To celebrate International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month the Museum is sharing the stories of 27 inspirational women, alongside the animals they work with the most.

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Dr Elia Benito-Gutierrez

Department of Zoology

“I still remember the day I was told about amphioxus in my first year of University.

A fish that was not a fish but the ‘making of’ a fish. Hiding in the sea floor, escaping massive extinctions, the lonely survivor of its kind deep in the gravel, from the group that gave rise to all animals with a backbone.

Ever since, I have travelled through seas and oceans to know how many of them exist, how they live and how they function by studying their genes, their development and their behaviour. We now have a home for them here in Cambridge, where we study them and learn more about us through them.”

Find out more about this research on the Benito-Gutiérrez Group

You can hear Elia Benito-Gutierrez talk about her research on our YouTube channel in Celebrating Women in Science and Conservation. Skip to 37 mins 52 sec for Elia’s talk.

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