Current Research

Oxford Palaeobiology Group investigates how life and environments have co-evolved over Earth's history to inform how environmental changes will affect future biodiversity.

Foundation of the modern biosphere

We reveal the early history of biodiversity using exceptional fossils, involving fieldwork, and cutting-edge fossil visualisation and chemical characterisation.

Extinction across ancient crises

We combine fossil occurrrences with palaeo-climatic data to show how traits can increase an organism's chances of extinction across major ancient environmental crises.

Preserving Early Life

Today complex life accounts for most biodiversity, biomass, and primary productivity. How did complex life first evolve over 500 million years ago? My lab uses exceptionally preserved cellular microfossils to chart the history of early life. Our search for these extraordinary fossils is informed by the application of novel analytical and experimental geochemical techniques to understand their preservation. Researching preservation also reveals the biases of the early fossil record.

Dr Ross Anderson

Senior Researcher of Natural History

The Dawn of Animals

I am interested in understanding the nature of early animal evolution; its tempo and mode. I have specific interest in the ‘Ediacaran Macrobiota’, of which at least some represent the remains of ancient animals. However, they record long extinct bodyplans and their relationship to the later Cambrian faunas remains obscure. Understanding the palaeobiology of the Ediacaran Macrobiota, the relationship between Ediacaran and Cambrian faunas and the nature of the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition is the principal goal of my research.

Dr Frankie Dunn

Senior Researcher of Natural History

Animal Body Plans

My research aims to understand the ‘Cambrian Explosion’ when the major groups of animals first appear in the fossil record. This research focuses on exceptionally preserved fossils that retain delicate tissues, such as guts, muscles and nervous systems. This fossil data is combined with evolutionary trees to understand how the body plans of major groups of animals were assembled.

Associate Professor Luke Parry

Associate Professor of Palaeobiology

Insects in Amber

I study the palaeobiology of terrestrial arthropods, namely those preserved in Cretaceous amber. These studies, although grounded on morphology and systematics, aim to gather palaeoecological, palaeoethological, palaeobiogeographical, and taphonomic data. Recent works have tackled debris-carrying and hatching mechanisms in fossil insects, the fine anatomy of predatory structures such as raptorial forelegs, or evidence of ticks parasitising feathered dinosaurs 100 million years ago. Regular excavations are carried out in Spain.

Dr Ricardo Pérez-de la Fuente

Museum Deputy Head of Research

Conserving Species

Research in my lab addresses the origin, maintenance, and conservation of biological diversity. We integrate biological data with the fossil record to elucidate controls on community and species’ responses to environmental change. We are interested in what controls speciation, extinction, and species’ distributions. We also focus on conservation palaeobiology, applying the fossil record to current species conservation. We use a diverse toolkit, including modelling, statistics, genetics, and environmental reconstruction.

Professor Erin Saupe

Professor of Palaeobiology