The Group has a wide range of research programmes that focus on Palaeozoic and Mesozoic organisms and exceptionally preserved fossil biotas (lagerstätten), with the aim of enhancing understanding of the processes and patterns of the evolution of life.

Leicester's Palaeobiology Group has an international reputation for initiatives elucidating the taphonomy and palaeobiology of globally important Palaeozoic lagerstätten, especially the Cambrian Chengjiang (China), Ordovician Soom Shale (South Africa) and Silurian Herefordshire (UK) faunas. Staff are leaders in the fields of the palaeobiology and evolutionary relationships of conodonts and other early fish, ostracods and related arthropods, pterosaurs, and in determining preservational pathways for the fossilization of soft-bodied organisms.

Palaeobiology group members have acknowledged expertise in the application of microfossils, including phytoplankton, and macrofossils (especially graptolites) in high resolution biostratigraphy and in interpreting early Palaeozoic ocean/atmosphere systems and palaeoclimate. Vertebrate research also includes Mesozoic marine reptiles and investigations of tooth microwear and the trophic ecology of fishes and dinosaurs.

The group has strong links with palaeontology laboratories and geological surveys world-wide; its research is supported by NERC, the Royal Society, the Leverhulme Trust, the British Geological Survey and Industry; and its staff hold leading positions in learned Palaeontological societies and Stratigraphic Commissions.

Academic Staff

Prof Richard Aldridge   Prof Mark Purnell

Prof David Siveter        Dr Jan Zalasiewicz

Dr Sarah Gabbott          Dr Mark Williams

Dr David Unwin

Research Staff

Laurent Darras

Duncan Murdock

Dr Robert Sansom (now at Bath)

Research Visitors
Professor Hou Xian-guang (Yunnan University, China)
Dr Zheng X-guang (Yunnan University, China)

Research Students
Jawad Afzal: Palaeocene-Eocene Foraminifera of the Indus Basin, Pakistan

Laurent Darras: The evolution and macroecological consequences of grazing and shellcrushing in fishes

Mark Evans: Evolution of Jurassic Plesiosauria
Irfan Jan: Investigating the palaeoenvironments and narrow palaeoclimate zones of the Palaeotethyan Permo-Carboniferous icehouse: the boulder beds of the Salt Range, Pakistan

Anna Jones: The inter-relationship of sedimentation, diagenesis, volcanism and mineralization at Parys Mountain, Anglesey

Oliver Knevitt: Taphonomy of the Eramosa Lagerstatte

Laura McLennan: Tooth microwear and dietary discrimination in chondrichthyans

Mohibullah Mohibullah: Ostracod faunal response to global climate change during the Late Ordovician and Early Silurian

Recent graduates

David Baines: Tooth microwear in fishes

Carys Bennett: Lower Carboniferous ostracods and isotopes of the Midland Valley, Scotland: testing for the ecological shift into non-marine environments.

Ben Davies: Functional morphology and locomotion of early vertebrates

David Jones: Exploiting the palaeobiological potential of conodonts: evolutionary trends, patterns and processes

Xiaoya Ma: The Lower Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, Yunnan, China

David Riley: Taphonomy of the Herefordshire Lagerstätte

Rowan Whittle: Problematic fossils from the Late Ordovician Soom Shale lagerstätte, South Africa

Vince Williams: Tooth microwear, diet and feeding in ornithischian dinosaurs

Experimental/Technical Staff
Robert Wilson (Experimental Officer; Scanning Electron Microscopy)
Lin Marvin (Scanning Electron Microscope Technician)

Emeritus Staff
Professor John Hudson
Dr Roy Clements
Dr Trevor Ford

Honorary Research Staff
Dr Keith Duff (Stamford, Lincolnshire)
Dr Philip Donoghue (Bristol University)
Dr Mike Howe (British Geological Survey)
Dr Stewart Molyneux (British Geological Survey)
Dr Gary Mullins (Fugro Robertson Ltd)
Dr Chris Peat (Leicestershire)
Mr Andrew Swift (Leicestershire)
Dr Philip Wilby (British Geological Survey)

Full department staff list

Current Projects

• Chengjiang Lagerstätte, China (Royal Society)
• Herefordshire Lagerstätte, UK (Leverhulme Trust)
• Soom Shale Lagerstätte, South Africa
• Eramosa Lagerstätte, Canada (Royal Ontario Museum and NERC)
• Silurian phytoplankton and oceanic change (Leverhulme Trust)
• Origins, ecology and paleobiology of ostracods and related arthropods (Royal Society and Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science)
• Palaeobiology of conodonts
• Bridging the gap between ecological and evolutionary timescales: tooth wear, niche differentiation and speciation in living and fossil fishes (NERC)
• Systematics locomotion and palaeobiology of pterosaurs
• Palaeoclimate of early Palaeozoic, Neogene and Holocene (British Antarctic Survey)
• Chordate taphonomy and vertebrate origins (NERC)
• Tooth wear and ecological constraints on conodonts (NERC)
  

Collaborations

• Yunnan University, China
• China University of Geosciences, Wuhan
• Ulm University Germany
• Lyon University, France
• Bristol, Oxford, London and Yale Universities
• British Geological Survey
• Stellenbosch University, South Africa
• Institute of Geology, Tallin, Estonia
• Royal Ontario Museum, Canada