People
Below is a list of our current Staff, Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Fellows and Honorary Research Fellows. You can also find details of our current PhD students and recent members of the Bristol Palaeobiology Group.
Staff
- Professor Michael Benton FRS FRSE: Origin of dinosaurs; mass extinctions; macroevolution
- Dr John Cunningham: Senior Teacing Associate, Palaeobiology MSc Tutor.
- Dr Tom Davies: Palaeobiology Laboratory Manager
- Professor Phil Donoghue FRS: Origin of vertebrates, conodonts, evo-devo and macroevolution
- Dr Erica Hendy: Past climates from corals and caves
- Professor Christine Janis: Diversification of mammals in the Cretaceous and Palaeogene (Emeritus Professor)
- Dr Stuart Kearns: Geochemistry and imaging of exceptionally preserved fossils
- Dr Jordi Paps Montserrat: Animal and plant genome evolution, molecular phylogenetics
- Professor Davide Pisani: Arthropod phylogenomics, origins of vision, supertrees
- Professor Emily Rayfield: Functional morphology and evolutionary biomechanics
- Professor Daniela Schmidt: Climate change impacts on marine ecosystems
- Dr Jakob Vinther: Molecular palaeobiology; Cambrian explosion
- Dr Tom Williams: Origin of eukaryotes (Royal Society University Research Fellow)
Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Fellows
- Dr Delphine Angst: New insights into the ecology of the dodo using a multidisciplinary approach (EU Marie Curie Research Fellow)
- Ms Rehemat Bhatia: Geochemical signatures of the biotic response to extreme climates (PDRA)
- Dr Heather Birch: PISTON: Does developmental plasticity influence speciation (PDRA)
- Dr Chenyang Cai: Beetle phylogeny, the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution, and the efficacy of molecular clock methods
- Dr Hugo Dutel: Functional evolution of the skull during the evolution of lobe-finned fished and early tetrapods (NERC PDRA)
- Dr Armin Elsler: Early tetrapod evolution: Red Queen or Court Jester? (NERC BETR PDRA)
- Dr Roberto Feuda: The evolution of neurogenic gene regulatory networks (Royal Society URF)
- Dr Andy Fraass: Planktic foraminifera test-size through the Neogene (Vice Chancellors Fellow)
- Dr Liz Martin-Silverstone: The influence of mechanical loading on cranial development and function in zebra fish (BBSRC PDRA). Read Liz's blog
- Dr Benjamin Moon: Marine reptiles of the Strawberry Bank site of exceptional preservation (Leverhulme/ NERC BETR PDRA)
- Dr Celine Petitjean: Phylogenomics of microbial eukaryotes (NERC PDRA)
- Dr Suman Sarkar: Cenozoic micropalaeontology (Newton International Fellow)
- Dr Catherine Sheard: Macroevolution of mammals (ERC PDRA)
- Dr Bruno Fonseca Simoes: Vision in snakes (EU Marie Curie-Skłodowska Research Fellow)
- Dr Tom Stubbs: Macroevolution of tetrapod disparity (ERC PDRA)
- Dr Danna Titelboim: Some like it hot – The effect of elevated temperatures on benthic foraminifer (Royal Society Newton Kohn International Fellow)
- Dr Jamie Wilson: Projecting uncertainties in the marine biological pump (AXA Fellow)
- Dr Qi Zhao: Bone histology and dinosaurian palaeobiology (Newton Advanced Research Fellow)
Honorary Research Fellows
- Dr Natasha Bakhurina: pterosaurs from Russia and Asia
- Dr Massimo Bernardi (Trento): Permian-Triassic tetrapods and ichnofossils
- Dr Arnau Bolet (Postdoc, Institut Cayalyà de OPaleontologia, Barcelona, Spain): macroevolution of Mesozoic lepidosaurs
- Professor Derek Briggs FRS (Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University): Experimental taphonomy; evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils; Burgess Shale
- Dr Kenneth De Baets: Ammonoids and marine palaeoecology (Visiting Fellow)
- Emeritus Professor David Dineley: Fossil fishes: Devonian
- Dr Desmond Donovan: Fossil cephalopods
- Dr Pam Gill: Kuehneotherium and the relationships of Mesozoic mammals (Research Associate)
- Professor Susan Marriott: Clastic sedimentology
- Dr Carlos Martinez Perez: Conodont phylogeny and function (Lecturer, University of Valencia)
- Dr Maria McNamara: Colour in the feathers of fossil birds and dinosaurs (Lecturer, University of Cork)
- Dr Duncan Murdock: Shedding synchrotron light on the fossil record of early plant evolution (NERC PDRA, University of Leicester)
- Professor Chris Paul: Fossil echinoderms; quality of fossil record (Research Fellow). Contact
- Dr Colin Palmer: pterosaur flight biomechanics
- Dr Laura Porro: cranial biomechanics
- Dr Martin Rücklin: Evolution and development of jaws and teeth in placoderms
- Dr Judyth Sassoon: Mesozoic marine reptiles (Research Associate)
- Dr James Tarver: Phylogenomics of basal Metazoa (Visiting Fellow)
- Dr Mike Taylor: Sauropod dinosaur anatomy and function (Research Associate)
- Professor Maurice Tucker: Carbonate sedimentology and ancient environments
- Dr David Whiteside: Triassic-Jurassic fissures and their faunas (Research Associate)
- Dr Mark Wilkinson (Natural History Museum): Phylogenetic method; caecilian evolution