Dr. M. A. PURNELL

NERC Advanced Postdoctoral Research Fellow.

BSc (Nottingham) 1985, PhD (Newcastle) 1989 on "Dinantian Conodonts of the Northumberland Trough".

My research interests include functional morphology, palaeobiology, palaeoecology, taxonomy and taphonomy. This focuses on conodonts and other extinct jawless vertebrates. I am also developing new tooth microwear-based approaches to trophic analysis of living and fossil aquatic vertebrates. I have supervised PhD projects dealing with conodont palaeobiology, agnathan taphonomy, and the Bear Gulch Lagerstätte; I currently supervise postgraduate research on conodont morphometrics and evolution, the biomechanics of swimming in ostracoderms, diversity and biomechanics of plesiosaurs, and the application of tooth microwear analysis to dinosaurs and to living and fossil actinopterygian fishes. For more details of my research, click here.

I am Manuscript Reviews Editor of Palaeontologia Electronica. I also produce the www pages of the The Pander Society. I am listowner of con-nexus, the conodont discussion group. I was Vice President of the Palaeontological Association (2003-2005).

Available PhD projects

• For details of currently available projects, click here. If you are interested in pursuing a postgraduate research project linked to any of my research interests, send me an email.

Contact details

Telephone		0116 252 3645
Fax		0116 252 3918
Email		map2@le.ac.uk
Address		Department of Geology, The University of Leicester, University Road, Leicester, England, LE1 7RH