Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton, University of Southampton

BSc Geology & Biology (First), University of Bristol, 1997
PhD Palaeontology, University of Bristol 2000

2000-2002, American Museum of Natural History, New York (USA). Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow, Ornithology.

2002-2011, University College Dublin, Ireland (Senior Lecturer 2007), School of Biology and Environmental Science.

Research Associate, American Museum of Natural History
Research Associate, National Museum of Ireland

Current research projects include:

• Anatomy and evolution of Lower Eocene birds
• Cretaceous palaeoenvironments of Transylvania, Romania
• Evolution of wings in dinosaurs (and birds)
• Pterosaur flight biomechanics
• Diversity and disparity of Cretaceous birds
• Evolution and diversity of galliform birds

Current book projects:

• Fossils of the Carpathian Basin
• Nopcsa, the Dinosaur Baron of Transylvania

My research addresses the evolutionary history of birds and their dinosaurian relatives and encompasses anatomy, phylogenetics, functional morphology, palaeoecology, taphonomy, sedimentology and aerodynamics as well as the analysis and interpretation of large fossil-record datasets. My research prospectus, current and future, is grounded in the fossil record – the only dataset recording the history of life on Earth – but draws extensively on living animals. With a strong background, professional training and publications in leading journals in both Biology and Earth Sciences, my research sits at the interface between these two fields.

I am emphasising and building three over-arching themes at the University of Southampton:
(1) Quantifying dinosaur biodiversity in geological time with emphasis on fossils from southern England;
(2) Birds survivorship at the end-Cretaceous and the evolution of modern avifaunas;
(3) Flight evolution and refinement in the context of global climate change.