Palaeobiology Group

Direct contact:

Tel: 0116 252 3645 Email:map2@le.ac.uk

Research interests range across taphonomy, functional morphology, palaeobiology, palaeoecology and taxonomy, including: experimental analysis of soft-tissue character decay and preservation; developing tooth microwear analysis of feeding in fishes and dinosaurs; aspects of the taphonomy and fauna of the Silurian Eramosa Lagerstatte; ongoing conodont projects.  These projects involve collaborations with colleagues in the UK, USA, China and Canada.  I supervise postgraduate research on taphonomy, palaeobiology, ornithiscian dinosaurs, fish tooth microwear, and plesiosaur systematics and palaeobiology. For further details see my personal research pages.

Four recent publications

• Purnell, M. A., Seehausen, O. & Galis, F. 2012: Quantitative 3D microtextural analysis of tooth wear as a tool for dietary discrimination in fishes. Journal of the Royal Society Interface. download pdf
• Sansom, R. S., Gabbott, S. E. & PURNELL, M. A. 2010: Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation. Nature 463, 797-800.
• Donoghue, P. C. J. & PURNELL, M. A. 2009: Distinguishing heat from light in debate over controversial fossils. Bioessays 31, 178-189.
• Williams, V. S., Barrett, P. M. & PURNELL, M. A. 2009: Quantitative analysis of dental microwear in hadrosaurid dinosaurs, and the implications for hypotheses of jaw mechanics and feeding. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 11194–11199.
  

Full publications listing and pdf downloads on personal homepages

Teaching

• GL1001 Palaeobiology and the Stratigraphic Record (module co-ordinator)
  
• GL3071 Diversity and Evolution of Vertebrates (module co-ordinator)
• GL4067 Evolutionary Palaeobiology (module co-ordinator)