Research
My work is centered around the biology and ecology of soft bodied organisms from critical transitions in the history of life on Earth. This has primarily focused on enigmatic taxa from the Ediacara Biota, the first fossil animals. I try to better understand what these animals looked like, how they interacted with their environment, where they came from, what happened to them and how they fit into the evolution of diverse life forms that are around today. While my research has primarily concentrated on these early animals I am interested in any organisms that made it into the fossil record.
Biotic Turnover
The image above (by paleoartist Alex Boersma) demonstrates major changes between different assemblages of the Ediacara Biota. A major aim of my research is to understand why these changes occurred and what they might tell us about more recent changes in diversity. Because these turnover events were likely influenced by changes in the environment, this work can also be used to understand the range of conditions that can support complex life, on Earth and beyond...
Development
As the oldest fossil animals the Ediacara Biota can tell us a great deal about early developmental processes. Determining the regulatory pathways needed to build these forms provides a new method for evaluating the genetic mechanisms behind the beginnings of complex life on this planet.
Biology and Ecology of
Soft-bodied fossil taxa
Although primarily focused on the Ediacara Biota, I am interested in learning more about any fossilized organisms. Particularly, soft-bodied animals leave an record comapred to other types of fossils. Using specimens collected in the field and from museum collections I have examined everything from how these organisms grew, to how and why they moved, to the composition and deformation of their tissues.
Soft-bodied preservation
Any study of organisms in the fossil record must account for the processes that led to their preservation in interpretations of their characters. Further, understanding the processes that led to instances of exceptional preservation that we know about can guide the search for similar fossils in new places. This includes fossils from the Ediacaran, Cambrian and Devonian.