Professor at the University of Algarve since 1998, where she teaches various themes of archaeology (e.g. Prehistory, Zooarchaeology, Archaeosciences) and cultural heritage (e.g. Management of Archaeological Heritage). Holds a licentiate's and master's degree from the Faculty of Arts of the University of Lisbon (FLUL), and completed her doctorate in 2008 in Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Algarve (UAlg). Currently is the director of the Course on Cultural Heritage and Archeology and an integrated researcher at CEAACP — Center for the Study of Archeology, Arts and Heritage Sciences (University of Algarve Subunit). Develops research in zooarcheology from several periods, from Prehistory to the Modern period, with dozens of published works. Her main research themes are: last hunter-gatherers and first farmers-shepherds usage of animal resources in Iberia; mesolithic subsistence and territorial strategies; zooarchaeological methodology; human diet and animal resources in Roman and Medieval Islamic periods in Southwestern Iberia. She has supervised several graduate dissertations in zooarcheology. At this moment co-directs the research project in Cacela-a-Velha («Muslims and Christians in Medieval Cacela: changing territory and identities»), is co-PI of the project «Balsa - in search of the Origins of the Algarve» and coordinates the zooarchaeological works of Casa das Bicas in Loulé.