Professor Philip Donoghue

Summary

My research is focused on the relationship between evolution and embryology, integrating living and fossil organisms, developmental biology, and knowledge of their evolutionary relationships, to provide an holistic understanding of major episodes in evolutionary history.

I have particular interest in the evolutionary emergence of vertebrates, and of ecdysozoans, but also in the evolutionary emergence of animals more generally. This entails classical palaeobiology, but also molecular genetics – to calibrate the Tree of Life to time using molecular clock theory, and to determine the role of genetic regulators of development in effecting organismal-level evolutionary change.

My group has facilities for rock digestion, high-end computed tomography, animal culture facilities and a molecular laboratory for RT-PCR, cloning, and in situ hybridisation.

Keywords

• embryology
• fossil organisms
• biology
• palaeobiology
• evolution
• embryology
• fossils
• living organisms
• fossil organisms
• ecdysozoans
• vertebrates

Memberships

Organisations

School of Earth Sciences

Academic staff

• Earth Sciences academic staff

Research groups

• Palaeobiology and Biodiversity

Research themes

• Evolution of Biodiversity and Morphology

Links

• Donoghue Lab website
• Donoghue Lab website
• Donoghue Lab website
• Donoghue Lab website

Recent publications

• Cunningham, JA, Thomas, C, Bengtson, S, Kearns, SL, Xiao, S, Marone, F, Stampanoni, M & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘Distinguishing geology from biology in the Ediacaran Doushantuo biota relaxes constraints on the timing of the origin of bilaterians’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, vol 279., pp. 2369-2376
• Cunningham, JA, Ruecklin, M, Blom, H, Botella, H & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘Testing models of dental development in the earliest bony vertebrates, Andreolepis and Lophosteus’. Biology Letters, vol 8., pp. 833-837
• Shimeld, SM & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘Evolutionary crossroads in developmental biology: cyclostomes (lamprey and hagfish)’. Development, vol 139., pp. 2091-2099
• Duan, B, Dong, X & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘New palaeoscolecid worms from the Furongian (upper Cambrian) of Hunan, South China: is Markuelia an embryonic palaeoscolecid?’. Palaeontology, vol 55., pp. 613-622
• Huldtgren, T, Cunningham, JA, Yin, C, Stampanoni, M, Marone, F, Donoghue, PCJ & Bengtson, S 2012, ‘Response to Comment on "Fossilized Nuclei and Germination Structures Identify Ediacaran 'Animal Embryos' as Encysting Protists"’. Science, vol 335., pp. -
• Warnock, R, Yang, Z & Donoghue, P 2012, ‘Exploring uncertainty in the calibration of the molecular clock’. Biology Letters, vol 8.
• Parham, JF, Donoghue, PCJ, Bell, CJ, Calway, TD, Head, JJ, Holroyd, PA, Inoue, JG, Irmis, RB, Joyce, WG, Ksepka, DT, Patane, JSL, Smith, ND, Tarver, JE, Tuinen, Mv, Yang, Z, Angielczyk, KD, Greenwood, JM, Hipsley, CA, Jacobs, L, Makovicky, PJ, Mueller, J, Smith, KT, Theodor, JM, Warnock, RCM & Benton, MJ 2012, ‘Best Practices for Justifying Fossil Calibrations’. Systematic Biology, vol 61., pp. 346-359
• Bengtson, S, Cunningham, JA, Yin, C & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘A merciful death for the "earliest bilaterian," Vernanimalcula’. Evolution and Development, vol 14., pp. 421-427
• Jones, D, Evans, AR, Siu, KKW, Rayfield, EJ & Donoghue, PCJ 2012, ‘The sharpest tools in the box? Quantitative analysis of conodont element functional morphology’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B - Biological Sciences, vol 279., pp. 2849-2854
• Ruecklin, M, Donoghue, PCJ, Johanson, Z, Trinajstic, K, Federica, M & Stampanoni, M 2012, ‘Development of teeth and jaws in the earliest jawed vertebrates’. Nature, vol 491.

View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system