2024.07– Associate Researcher, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences

2024.04– Visiting Researcher, The University of Tokyo

2022.01–2024.12 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Royal Veterinary College

2019.06–2022.01 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Clemson University

2018.03 PhD, Hokkaido University

Animal locomotion

Crocodyliform systematics

Zooarchaeology

Iijima, M., Blob, R. W., Hutchinson, J. R. 2025. Biomechanical simulations of hindlimb function in Alligator provide insights into postural shifts and body size evolution. Science Advances 11: eadx3811.

Iijima, M., Munteanu, V. D., Blob, R. W. 2024. Variations in humeral and femoral strains across body sizes and limb posture in American alligators. Journal of Experimental Biology 227: jeb249211.

Iijima, M., Mayerl, C., Munteanu, V. D., Blob, R. W. 2024. Forelimb muscle activation patterns in American alligators: insights into the evolution of limb posture and powered flight in archosaurs. Journal of Anatomy 244: 943–958.

Iijima, M., Darlington, J., Munteanu, V. D., Vliet, K. A., Blob, R. W. 2023. Scaling of gait, limb posture, forces, and inertial properties in terrestrial locomotion of American alligators across a thousand-fold increase in body mass. Integrative and Comparative Biology 63: 664–680.

Iijima, M., Qiao, Y., Lin, W., Peng, Y., Yoneda, M., Liu, J. 2022. An intermediate crocodylian linking two extant gharials from the Bronze Age of China and its human-induced extinction. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289: 20220085.

Iijima, M., Munteanu, V. D., Elsey, R. M., Blob, R. W. 2021. Ontogenetic changes in limb posture, kinematics, forces and joint moments in American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis). Journal of Experimental Biology 224: jeb242990

Iijima, M., Takai, M., Nishioka, Y., Thaung-Htike, Zin-Maung-Maung-Thein, Egi, N., Kusuhashi, N., Tsubamoto, T., Kono, R., Hirayama, R. 2021. Taxonomic overview of Neogene crocodylians in Myanmar. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 41: e1879100.

Iijima, M., Kubo, T. 2021. Intervertebral joint polarity reversions in extant and extinct crocodylians. Acta Zoologica 102: 386–393.

Iijima, M., Kubo, T. 2020. Vertebrae-based body length estimation in crocodylians and its implication for sexual maturity and the maximum sizes. Integrative Organismal Biology obaa042.

Iijima, M., Tsubamoto, T., Tsogtbaatar, K., Chinzorig, T., Baasankhuu, S. 2019. Discovery of a crocodyliform tooth from the upper Eocene Ergilin Dzo Formation, Mongolia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64: 775–778.

Iijima, M., Kobayashi, K. 2019. Mosaic nature in the skeleton of East Asian crocodylians fills the morphological gap between ‘Tomistominae’ and Gavialinae. Cladistics 35: 623–632.

Iijima, M., Kubo, T. 2019. Allometric growth of limb and body proportions in crocodylians. Journal of Zoology 309: 200–211.

Iijima, M., Kubo, T. 2019. Comparative morphology of presacral vertebrae in extant crocodylians: taxonomic, functional, and ecological implications. Zoological Journal of Linnean Society 186: 1006–1025.

Iijima, M., Kubo, T., Kobayashi, Y. 2018. Comparative limb proportions reveal differential locomotor morphofunctions of alligatoroids and crocodyloids. Royal Society Open Science 5: 171774

Iijima, M., Momohara, A., Kobayashi, Y., Hayashi, S., Ikeda, T., Taruno, H., Watanabe, K., Tanimoto, M., Furui, S. 2018. Toyotamaphimeia cf. machikanensis (Crocodylia: Tomistominae) from the Middle Pleistocene of Osaka, Japan, and the crocodylian survivorship through the Pliocene-Pleistocene climatic oscillations. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 496: 346–360.

Iijima, M. 2017. Assessment of trophic ecomorphology in non-alligatoroid crocodylians and its adaptive and taxonomic implications. Journal of Anatomy 231: 192–211.

Iijima, M., Takahashi, K., Kobayashi, Y. 2016. The oldest record of Alligator sinensis from the Late Pliocene of Western Japan, and its biogeographic implication. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences 124: 94–101.

Iijima, M., Kobayashi, Y. 2014. Convergences and trends in the evolution of the archosaur pelvis. Paleobiology 40: 608–624.