A full list of our publications is coming - in the meantime email any member of the team to find out more

Search or filter publications

Filter by type:

Filter by publication type

Filter by year:

to

Results

  • Showing results for:
  • Reset all filters

Search results

  • Journal article
    Chiarenza A, Mannion P, Lunt D, Farnsworth A, Jones L, Kelland S-J, Allison Pet al., 2019,

    Ecological niche modelling does not support climatically-driven dinosaur diversity decline before the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction

    , Nature Communications, Vol: 10, Pages: 1-14, ISSN: 2041-1723

    In the lead-up to the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction, dinosaur diversity is argued to have been either in long-term decline, or thriving until their sudden demise. The latest Cretaceous (Campanian–Maastrichtian [83–66 Ma]) of North America provides the best record to address this debate, but even here diversity reconstructions are biased by uneven sampling. Here we combine fossil occurrences with climatic and environmental modelling to quantify latest Cretaceous North American dinosaur habitat. Ecological niche modelling shows a Campanian-to-Maastrichtian habitability decrease in areas with present-day rock-outcrop. However, a continent-wide projection demonstrates habitat stability, or even a Campanian-to-Maastrichtian increase, that is not preserved. This reduction of the spatial sampling window resulted from formation of the proto-Rocky Mountains and sea-level regression. We suggest that Maastrichtian North American dinosaur diversity is therefore likely to be underestimated, with the apparent decline a product of sampling bias, and not due to a climatically-driven decrease in habitability as previously hypothesised.
  • Journal article
    Tennant JP, Mannion PD, Upchurch P, Sutton M, Price Get al., 2016,

    Biotic and environmental dynamics through the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous transition: evidence for protracted faunal and ecological turnover

    , Biological Reviews, Vol: 92, Pages: 776-814, ISSN: 1469-185X

    The Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous interval represents a time of environmental upheaval and cataclysmic events, combined with disruptions to terrestrial and marine ecosystems. Historically, the Jurassic/Cretaceous (J/K) boundary was classified as one of eight mass extinctions. However, more recent research has largely overturned this view, revealing a much more complex pattern of biotic and abiotic dynamics than has previously been appreciated. Here, we present a synthesis of our current knowledge of Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous events, focusing particularly on events closest to the J/K boundary. We find evidence for a combination of short-term catastrophic events, large-scale tectonic processes and environmental perturbations, and major clade interactions that led to a seemingly dramatic faunal and ecological turnover in both the marine and terrestrial realms. This is coupled with a great reduction in global biodiversity which might in part be explained by poor sampling. Very few groups appear to have been entirely resilient to this J/K boundary ‘event’, which hints at a ‘cascade model’ of ecosystem changes driving faunal dynamics. Within terrestrial ecosystems, larger, more-specialised organisms, such as saurischian dinosaurs, appear to have suffered the most. Medium-sized tetanuran theropods declined, and were replaced by larger-bodied groups, and basal eusauropods were replaced by neosauropod faunas. The ascent of paravian theropods is emphasised by escalated competition with contemporary pterosaur groups, culminating in the explosive radiation of birds, although the timing of this is obfuscated by biases in sampling. Smaller, more ecologically diverse terrestrial non-archosaurs, such as lissamphibians and mammaliaforms, were comparatively resilient to extinctions, instead documenting the origination of many extant groups around the J/K boundary. In the marine realm, extinctions were focused on low-latitude, shallow marine shel
  • Journal article
    Jordan N, Allison PA, Hill J, Sutton MDet al., 2015,

    Not all aragonitic molluscs are missing: taphonomy and significance of a unique shelly lagerstatte from the Jurassic of SW Britain

    , Lethaia, Vol: 48, Pages: 540-548, ISSN: 1502-3931

    The Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis (Dorset, UK) includes an exceptional pavement of abundant large ammonites that accumulated during a period of profound sedimentary condensation. Ammonites were originally composed of aragonite, an unstable polymorph of calcium carbonate, and such fossils are typically prone to dissolution; the occurrence of a rich association of aragonitic shells in a condensed bed is highly unusual. Aragonite dissolution occurs when pore-water pH is reduced by the oxidization of hydrogen sulphide close to the sediment-water interface. Evidence suggests that, in this case, the oxygen concentrations in the overlying water column were low during deposition. This inhibited the oxidation of sulphides and the associated lowering of pH, allowing aragonite to survive long enough for the shell to be neomorphosed to calcite. The loss of aragonite impacts upon estimates of past biodiversity and carbonate accumulation rates. The preservational model presented here implies that diagenetic loss of aragonite will be greatest in those areas where dysoxic-anoxic sediment lies beneath an oxic waterbody but least where the sediment and overlying water are oxygen depleted. Unfortunately, this implies that preservational bias through aragonite loss will be greatest in those biotopes which are typically most diverse and least where biodiversity is lowest due to oxygen restriction.
  • Journal article
    Dean CD, Sutton MD, Siveter DJ, Siveter DJet al., 2015,

    A novel respiratory architecture in the Silurian mollusc <i>Acaenoplax</i>

    , PALAEONTOLOGY, Vol: 58, Pages: 839-847, ISSN: 0031-0239
  • Journal article
    Siveter DJ, Briggs DE, Siveter DJ, Sutton MDet al., 2015,

    A 425-million-year-old Silurian pentastomid parasitic on ostracods

    , Current Biology, Vol: 25, Pages: 1632-1637, ISSN: 0960-9822

    Pentastomids (tongue worms) are worm-like arthropods known today from ∼140 species [1]. All but four are parasitic on vertebrates. Their life cycle typically involves larval development in an intermediate host followed by maturation in the respiratory tract of a definitive terrestrial host. Fossil pentastomids are exceedingly rare and are known only from isolated juveniles [2-6]. The identity of the possible hosts of fossil pentastomids and the origin of their lifestyle have generated much debate. A new, exceptionally preserved species, described based on adults from 425-million-year-old marine rocks, is the only known fossil pentastomid associated with a host, in this case a species of ostracod crustacean. The pentastomids are preserved near eggs within the ostracod and also, uniquely for any fossil or living pentastomid, are attached externally to the host. This discovery affirms the origin of pentastomids as ectoparasitic on marine invertebrates. The terrestrialization of pentastomids may have occurred in parallel with the vertebrate invasion of land.
  • Journal article
    Bertazzo S, Maidment S, Kallepitis C, Fearn S, Stevens MM, Xie HNet al., 2015,

    Fibres and cellular structures preserved in 75-million–year-old dinosaur specimens

    , Nature Communications, Vol: 6, ISSN: 2041-1723

    Exceptionally preserved organic remains are known throughout the vertebrate fossil record, and recently, evidence has emerged that such soft tissue might contain original components. We examined samples from eight Cretaceous dinosaur bones using nano-analytical techniques; the bones are not exceptionally preserved and show no external indication of soft tissue. In one sample, we observe structures consistent with endogenous collagen fibre remains displaying ~67 nm banding, indicating the possible preservation of the original quaternary structure. Using ToF-SIMS, we identify amino-acid fragments typical of collagen fibrils. Furthermore, we observe structures consistent with putative erythrocyte remains that exhibit mass spectra similar to emu whole blood. Using advanced material characterization approaches, we find that these putative biological structures can be well preserved over geological timescales, and their preservation is more common than previously thought. The preservation of protein over geological timescales offers the opportunity to investigate relationships, physiology and behaviour of long extinct animals.
  • Journal article
    Martin-Short R, Hill J, Kramer SC, Avdis A, Allison PA, Piggott MDet al., 2015,

    .Tidal resource extraction in the Pentland Firth, UK: Potential impacts on flow regime and sediment transport in the Inner Sound of Stroma

    , RENEWABLE ENERGY, Vol: 76, Pages: 596-607, ISSN: 0960-1481
  • Conference paper
    Balikova D, Maidment S, Muxworthy AR, 2015,

    The age of the Morrison Formation (Western Interior, USA): A Magnetostratigraphic Approach (poster)

    , Magnetic Interactions 2015
  • Journal article
    Jacobs CT, Goldin TJ, Collins GS, Piggott MD, Kramer SC, Melosh HJ, Wilson CRG, Allison PAet al., 2015,

    An improved quantitative measure of the tendency for volcanic ash plumes to form in water: implications for the deposition of marine ash beds

    , JOURNAL OF VOLCANOLOGY AND GEOTHERMAL RESEARCH, Vol: 290, Pages: 114-124, ISSN: 0377-0273
  • Journal article
    Parkinson SD, Hill J, Piggott MD, Allison PAet al., 2014,

    Direct numerical simulations of particle-laden density currents with adaptive, discontinuous finite elements

    , GEOSCIENTIFIC MODEL DEVELOPMENT, Vol: 7, Pages: 1945-1960, ISSN: 1991-959X
  • Journal article
    Siveter DJ, Briggs DEG, Siveter DJ, Sutton MD, Legg D, Joomun Set al., 2014,

    A Silurian short-great-appendage arthropod

    , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Vol: 281, Pages: 1-7, ISSN: 0962-8452

    A new arthropod, Enalikter aphson gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Silurian (Wenlock Series) Herefordshire Lagerstätte of the UK. It belongs to the Megacheira (=short-great-appendage group), which is recognized here, for the first time, in strata younger than mid-Cambrian age. Discovery of this new Silurian taxon allows us to identify a Devonian megacheiran representative, Bundenbachiellus giganteus from the Hunsrück Slate of Germany. The phylogenetic position of megacheirans is controversial: they have been interpreted as stem chelicerates, or stem euarthropods, but when Enalikter and Bundenbachiellus are added to the most comprehensive morphological database available, a stem euarthropod position is supported. Enalikter represents the only fully three-dimensionally preserved stem-group euarthropod, it falls in the sister clade to the crown-group euarthropods, and it provides new insights surrounding the origin and early evolution of the euarthropods. Recognition of Enalikter and Bundenbachiellus as megacheirans indicates that this major arthropod group survived for nearly 100 Myr beyond the mid-Cambrian.
  • Journal article
    Winrow P, Sutton MD, 2014,

    Lingulate brachiopods and the Early Palaeozoic history of the Iapetus Ocean

    , Lethaia, Vol: 47, Pages: 456-468, ISSN: 1502-3931
  • Book
    Sutton M, Rahman I, Garwood R, 2014,

    Techniques for Virtual Palaeontology

    , Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, ISBN: 9781118591130

    All titles in this series are available in a variety of full-colour, searchable eBook formats.
  • Journal article
    Hiester HR, Piggott MD, Farrell PE, Allison PAet al., 2014,

    Assessment of spurious mixing in adaptive mesh simulations of the two-dimensional lock-exchange

    , Ocean Modelling, Vol: 73, Pages: 30-44, ISSN: 1463-5003
  • Journal article
    Legg DA, Sutton MD, Edgecombe GD, 2013,

    Arthropod fossil data increase congruence of morphological and molecular phylogenies

    , NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, Vol: 4, ISSN: 2041-1723
  • Journal article
    Siveter DJ, Briggs DEG, Siveter DJ, Sutton MD, Joomun SCet al., 2013,

    A Silurian myodocope with preserved soft-parts: cautioning the interpretation of the shell-based ostracod record

    , PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Vol: 280, ISSN: 0962-8452
  • Journal article
    Hassan MHA, Johnson HD, Allison PA, Abdullah WHet al., 2013,

    Sedimentology and stratigraphic development of the upper Nyalu Formation (Early Miocence), Sarawak, Malaysia: A mixed wave and tide influenced coastal system

    , Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
  • Conference paper
    Jordan N, Allison PA, Hill JH, Sutton MDet al., 2012,

    Carbonates, ammonites and the fate of aragonite: a new perspective from the Lower Jurassic of Lyme Regis

    , British Sedimentological Research Group Annual Meeting

    The Lower Jurassic Blue Lias Formation at Lyme Regis, Dorset, preserves a diverse assemblage of invertebrate and vertebrate fossils within rhythmic packages of shales, marls and carbonates. One limestone bed in particular, Bed 29, preserves a unique pavement of very large (up to 72 cm) ammonites, initially buried in carbonate mud before diagenetic cementation. The ammonite accumulation is most likely due to sedimentological condensation but the mechanisms for preserving an aragonitic shell long enough for it to be neomorphosed to calcite on the seabed are a challenge for conventional taphonomic models. It has been suggested that early dissolution of aragonite is a major process in offshore deeper ramp settings, resulting in the removal of sediment prior to lithification. We present field-based evidence for a new model of aragonite preservation within a cyclic oxic-anoxic carbonate environment, using ammonite preservation to track the fate of aragonite in different depositional environments. The carbonate sediment provides a short-term geochemical buffer that militates against the dissolution of aragonite sediment and molluscs, allowing neomorphism to calcite under some conditions. The broader implications of this model for the preservation of molluscan shells and reduced sediment dissolution in carbonate environments under variably oxygenated conditions are evaluated.
  • Journal article
    Legg DA, Sutton MD, Edgecombe GD, Caron J-Bet al., 2012,

    Cambrian bivalved arthropod reveals origin of arthrodization

    , PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, Vol: 279, Pages: 4699-4704, ISSN: 0962-8452
  • Journal article
    Sutton MD, Briggs DEG, Siveter DJ, Siveter DJ, Sigwart JDet al., 2012,

    A Silurian armoured aplacophoran and implications for molluscan phylogeny

    , NATURE, Vol: 490, Pages: 94-97, ISSN: 0028-0836

This data is extracted from the Web of Science and reproduced under a licence from Thomson Reuters. You may not copy or re-distribute this data in whole or in part without the written consent of the Science business of Thomson Reuters.

Request URL: http://www.imperial.ac.uk:80/respub/WEB-INF/jsp/search-t4-html.jsp Request URI: /respub/WEB-INF/jsp/search-t4-html.jsp Query String: id=804&limit=20&respub-action=search.html Current Millis: 1764904005032 Current Time: Fri Dec 05 03:06:45 GMT 2025