Art: Victor Leshyk
Environmental drivers of vertebrate macroevolution
My primary research focuses on how environmental and climatic changes have impacted patterns of vertebrate evolution, diversity, and biogeography. For this, I use a diverse set of analytical tools from palaeontology, phylogenetics, and ecology, which allow me to ask questions at big scales, in both time and space, and take advantage of the increasing availability of ‘Big Data’ repositories in palaeontology. Within this theme, some of my current projects include:
- The impact of hyperthermal events on squamate biodiversity
- How climate change shaped early dinosaur evolution
- The evolution of herbivory in dinosaurs
- Climatic drivers of gigantism in sauropod dinosaurs
- Environmental change and early tetrapod evolution
Pal(a)eoscientometrics
Together with Nussaïbah Raja, I co-founded and now co-lead the Pal(a)eoscientometrics Research Collective, a transdisciplinary international group of academics and allied workers that conducts quantitative research and delivers training on the impact of colonialism, (un)ethical practices, and legal issues on palaeontological research and in the geosciences more broadly. This research draws on our expertise in analytical techniques in palaeobiology and incorporates approaches from law and the social sciences (e.g. ethics, gender studies, economics and political science).
More information can be found on our dedicated webpage.