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 OBE, FRS FRSE: Origin of dinosaurs; mass extinctions; macroevolution
Dr Tim Caro: Evolution of coloration in mammals, decapods and anemones; conservation strategies in tropical ecosystems
Dr John Cunningham: Senior Teaching Associate, Palaeobiology MSc Tutor
Professor Philip Donoghue FRS: Origins of animals, plants, vertebrates, molecular palaeobiology
Dr Erica Hendy: Past climates from corals and caves
Dr Michael Henehan: The global carbon cycle
Professor Christine Janis: Diversification of mammals in the Cretaceous and Palaeogene (Emeritus Professor)
Dr Stuart Kearns: Geochemistry and imaging of exceptionally preserved fossils
Dr Liz Martin-Silverstone: Laboratories Manager. Read Liz's blog
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)
Dr Adam Woodhouse

Postdoctoral Researchers and Research Fellows

Dr Sandra Alvarez-Carretero: Contingency and purpose in the evolution of biospheres (Templeton Foundation)
Dr Antonio Ballel Mayoral: Morphological and functional diversity of the lepidosaur head (BBSRC PDRA)
Dr Alexander Bowles: ice Dependent Adaptations for Plant Terrestrialization (Leverhulme Trust)
Dr David Button: Macroevolution of birds (ERC Innovation PDRA)
Dr Pierre Cockx: Exploring evolution of feather function in early birds and dinosaurs (EU Marie Curie/ UKRI)
Dr Ben Griffin: An integrated quantitative approach to characterising organismal design-space and tests of evolutionary causality (Templeton Foundation)
Dr Christopher Kay: Contingency and purpose in the evolution of biospheres (Templeton Foundation)
Dr Joseph Keating: Macroevolutionary modelling (ERC Innovation PDRA)
Dr Xiumei Lu: Evolutionary dynamics of Neuropterida and the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (Royal Society K. C. Wong International Fellow)
Dr Edmund Moody: Inferring the tree of life and evolution of metabolisum (Templeton Foundation PDRA)
Dr Melisa Morales Garcia: Origin and evolution of mammals (NERC)
Dr Anna Nenarokova: Resolving the prokaryote-to-eukaryote transition using new phylogenomic models of endosymbiosis (Moore Foundation)
Dr Carlos Rivera Rivera: Evolution of gene regulatory networks in Metazoa (EU Marie Curie Research Fellow)
Dr Romain Sabroux: Fossil sea spider and chelicerate evolution (EU Marie Curie Research Fellow)
Dr Catherine Sheard: Macroevolution of mammals (ERC Innovation PDRA)
Dr Suresh Singh: (ERC Innovation PDRA)
Dr Tom Stubbs: Macroevolution of tetrapod disparity (ERC Innovation PDRA)
Dr Yan Zhao: The evolution of Mesozoic mammals (Chinese Scholarship Council)
Dr Zhicai Zhu: Sedimentiology across the Permian-Triassic boundary (CSFC Research Fellow)

Honorary Research Fellows

Dr Marta Álvarez-Presas: Comparative genomics of parasitic animals
Dr Natasha Bakhurina: pterosaurs from Russia and Asia
Dr Massimo Bernardi: Permian-Triassic tetrapods and ichnofossils (Trento)
Dr Heather Birch: (NERC)
Dr Arnau Bolet: macroevolution of Mesozoic lepidosaurs (Postdoc, Institut Cayalyà de OPaleontologia, Barcelona, Spain)
Professor Derek Briggs FRS: Experimental taphonomy; evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossils; Burgess Shale (Director of the Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University)
Dr Kenneth De Baets: Ammonoids and marine palaeoecology (Visiting Fellow)
Dr Hugo Dutel: Form, function and development of the amniote skull: a case study using lepidosaurs
Dr Armin Elsler: Early tetrapod evolution: Red Queen or Court Jester?
Dr Humberto Ferron: Early vertebrate evolution
Dr Pam Gill: Kuehneotherium and the relationships of Mesozoic mammals (Research Associate)
Professor Liang Lü: Associate Professor, Hebei Normal University, nematode evolution
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 Benjamin Moon: Marine reptiles of the Strawberry Bank site of exceptional preservation
Dr Duncan Murdock: Shedding synchrotron light on the fossil record of early plant evolution (Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, University of Oxford)
Dr Elis Newham: Origin and evolution of mammals
Professor Chris Paul: Fossil echinoderms; quality of fossil record (Research Fellow). Contact
Dr Colin Palmer: pterosaur flight biomechanics
Dr Judyth Sassoon: Mesozoic marine reptiles (Research Associate)
Ms Weichen Sun: Early animal evolution, Chinese Scholarship Council (Visiting researcher)
Dr Mike Taylor: Sauropod dinosaur anatomy and function (Research Associate)
Dr Danna Titelboim: (EU MSC Research Fellow, University of Oxford)
Professor Maurice Tucker: Carbonate sedimentology and ancient environments
Dr Karina Vanadzina: Evolution of morphological disparity in planktic foraminifers in 3D (University of Warsaw)
Dr David Whiteside: Triassic-Jurassic fissures and their faunas (Research Associate)
Dr Mark Wilkinson: Phylogenetic method; caecilian evolution (Natural History Museum)
Dr Jamie Wilson: Projecting uncertainties in the marine biological pump (University of Liverpool)
Dr William A. Wimbledon: Jurassic-Cretaceous biostratigraphy; ammonites
Dr James Witts: Focus on marine systems, impact of global change on ecosystems and macroevolution, mass extinctions