Current Projects

Doctoral Theses, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

  • Jack Matthews - Sedimentary contexts of earliest animal life
  • Leila Battison - Cellular and sub-cellular preservation in the Proterozoic, with particular emphasis on phosphatic preservation of algal flora in the Torridonian of north-west Scotland
  • Latha Menon - Understanding the discoidal fossils of the Ediacaran

 

Recent projects (supervised by Prof M. D. Brasier)

Doctoral Theses, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

  • Alex Liu - Understanding the Ediacaran Assemblages of Avalonia: A palaeoenvironmental, taphonomic and ontogenetic study
  • Richard Callow - The co-evolution of biology and taphonomy across the Proterozoic-Cambrian transition
  • Jonathan Antcliffe - The Ediacara Biota: A study of their growth and evolutionary relationships
  • Maia Schweizer - Molecular taphonomy of major evolutionary Lagerstatten: a critical appraisal of fossils from the Messel, Chengjiang, Rhynie and Doushantuo biotas
  • Nicola McLouglin - Biogenicity criteria for the earliest fossil record of life

 

Masters Theses, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford

2002-2011

  • Jonathan Baker-Brian - Remarkable preservation of silk cocoons and microbes in 140 million year old amber from Sussex
  • Jack Matthews - Major environmental and taphonomic controls on the Ediacaran biota of Newfoundland and the UK
  • Sean McMahon - Deciphering a Palaeoproterozoic nutrient cycle: New evidence from phosphate in the 1.9-Ga Gunflint Formation, Canada
  • Ian Yenney - A critical study of East Sussex amber inclusions
  • Elizabeth Horne - Constraining the Early Evolution of the Echinodermata
  • Becky Langham - Predator-Prey: Understanding the dynamics and their evolutionary implications
  • Victoria Ash - A study of the problematic group Conulariida, including early Cambrian forms from Maidiping, China
  • Nicola Pieniazek - Evolutionary trends of Early Cambrian molluscs: a case study from Iran
  • Leila Battison - A context for the origin of Eukaryotes: Evidence from phosphates in the Torridonian (with Dr Duncan McIlroy, MUN)
  • Laura Cotton - High resolution cellular preservation in resins (with Dr Derek Siveter)
  • Benjamin Franklin - Morphospace and Finite Element Analysis of Early Hominid flint impliments (with Dr. Derek Siveter and Dr. Jonathan Antcliffe)
  • Richard Matthewman - A volcanic substrate for the origin of life (with Dr. Dave Pyle and Dr Tamsin Mather)
  • Holly Midwinter-Porter - Records of seasonal growth in early Cambrian shells (with Dr Derek Siveter and Dr Jonathan Antcliffe)
  • Hugh Aggleton - The transition to land, a biochemical study of Acanthostega
  • Sam Moorhouse - High quality cellular preservation in the fossil record and it's potential significance
  • Alex Liu - Stable isotope evidence for an amphibious phase in early Proboscidean evolution (with Dr Erik Seiffert, Stony Brook University)
  • Megan Barnett - Pseudomonas elegans and modelling microbial mats in the fossil record (with Dr. Nicola McLoughlin, Bergen)
  • Richard Callow - Biomineralisation in the Ediacaran Period
  • Jonathan Antcliffe - On the form and relations of the Ediacara biota
  • Maddy Press - A biometric study of Apex chert 'microfossils'
  • Jo Slack - The palaeobiology of Charnia masoni and related fronds
  • Katrina Marsden - Discospirina: Morphology, palaeoecology and evolution