Research

The overarching goal of my research is to use both the fossil record and modern animals to understand how evolution has optimised the function of sensory systems in evolutionary lineages.

From this we can gain solutions to complex evolutionary questions as well as source of inspiration to resolve engineering challenges: biomimicry with the added dimension of time – palaeobiomimicry. My approach to palaeobiology is unique and wholly interdisciplinary in collaboration with engineers, marine biologists, neurophysiologists and roboticists using cutting edge techniques in the field including micro CT scanning, electrophysiology and computational fluid dynamics.

This is a interdisciplinary approach which broadly can be divided into several key research themes:

Palaeoneurology

The study of the structures that make up the sensory apparatus, including the brain, of an extinct animal is called palaeoneurology. Of course, actual nerves and brains are rarely preserved in fossils and so we make inferences from the shape, size and structure of the spaces that once housed these structures. These are known as endocasts.

DipRost.mp4

Evolution of sarcopterygian fish

Sarcopterygian fish were once the dominant group of fish until around 350 million years ago when they started to decline in numbers with many ecological niches being filled by ray-finned fishes and sharks. Their history of evolution during this period is one of the most interesting in all vertebrates and whereas their legacy continues today with only four genera and eight species, their close kin, tetrapods inhabit the land, sea and air that we know today.

Current collaborations

Brain–endocast disparity – quantifying uncertainty in fossil endocast reconstructions. Dr Alice Clement (Flinders University).

A Fish Out of Water: Sensory Evolution across the Fish-Tetrapod Transition. – Dr Ignazio Viola (University of Edinburgh), Dr Stig Walsh (National Museums Scotland), Dr Stephen Brusatte (University of Edinburgh).

Scotland's Jurassic Park: Illuminating a dark period in the evolution of dinosaurs and other terrestrial vertebrates (Project member). Dr Stephen Brusatte (University of Edinburgh), Dr Stig Walsh (National Museums Scotland), Dr Nicholas Fraser (National Museums Scotland), Dr Neil Clark (Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow), Dr Roger Benson (Oxford University).

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