Research Assistant (NERC)

Palaeobiology Group

Direct contact:

Tel: 0116 252 3629 Email:dm277@le.ac.uk

Research interests:

Assessing the taphonomy of Palaeozoic lobopodians, and critically examining the interpretation of putative onychophoran fossils with soft tissue preservation. Emphasis is upon comparison of lobopodian fossils from the Eramosa and Mazon Creek Lagerstätte, with the results of decay experiments on extant analogues, velvet worms. Full details here.

More broadly, my interests include the deep relationships between major metazoan clades, the growth and function of the earliest animal biomineralizers and conodont palaeobiology.  Some of which I have pursued during my doctoral research, full details on my homepage.

Publications:

• Murdock, D. J. E., Donoghue, P. C. J., Bengtson, S. and Marone, F. In press. Ontogeny and microstructure of the enigmatic Cambrian tommotiidSunnaginia Missarzhevsky 1969. Palaeontology

• Murdock, D. J. E. and Donoghue, P. C. J. 2011 Evolutionary origins of animal skeletal biomineralization. Cells, Tissues, Organs, 2-4, 98-102

• Artem Kouchinsky, Stefan Bengtson, Duncan J. E. Murdock. 2010. A new tannuolinid problematic from the lower Cambrian of the Sukharikha River in northern Siberia. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 55, 321-331.

Funding:

My current funding is part of a NERC Small Grant with Prof Mark Purnell and Dr Sarah Gabbott entitled, "Experimental decay of onychophorans - lobopodian anatomy and arthropod origins.”