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Palaeobiology Group

Direct contact:

Tel: 0116 252 3642 Email: mri@le.ac.uk

Research interests

Include: exceptionally preserved fossil faunas (fossils with their 'soft bits') from the Antarctic, Britain and China, and the palaeoclimate of the Early Palaeozoic, Neogene and Holocene.  I have current projects based on material from various parts of Britain, China, the Antarctic, and North and South America.  I supervise research on the palaeoclimate of warm and cold Earth time intervals, and the early colonization of non-marine environments.

Four recent publications

• Williams, M., Haywood, A.M., Harper, E.M., Johnson, A., Knowles, T., Leng, M.J., Lunt, D., Okamura, B., Taylor, P. & Zalasiewicz, J.A. 2008. Pliocene climate and seasonality in North Atlantic shelf seas. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London, Series A, doi:10.1098/rsta.2008.0224
• Williams, M., Siveter, D.J., Ashworth, A., Wilby, P., Horne, D.J., Lewis, A.R. & Marchant, D. 2008. Exceptionally preserved lacustrine ostracods from the Middle Miocene of Antarctica: implications for high latitude palaeoenvironment at 77° south. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, Biological Sciences, doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.0396.
• Lewis, A.R., Marchant, D.R., Ashworth, A.C., Hedenäs, L., Hemming, S.R., Johnson, J.V., Leng, M.J., Machlus, M.L., Newton, A.E., Raine, J.I., Willenbring, J.K., Williams, M. & Wolfe, A.P. 2008. Major mid-Miocene cooling and extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 105, 10676-10680.
• Wilkinson, I.P., Williams, M., Young, J.R., Lott, G.K., Cook, S.R. & Fulford, M.G. 2008. The application of microfossils in assessing the provenance of chalk used in the manufacture of Roman mosaics at Silchester. Journal of Archaeological Science, 35, 2415-2422.

For a full listing see personal web pages

Teaching

• 4th Year course in preparation for Autumn 2007: Methods & Modelling in Palaeoclimatology.