Prof Richard Twitchett

I am interested in understanding how marine ecosystems responded to major biological and environmental changes of the past, particularly those associated with global warming and the mass extinction episodes of the Phanerozoic. Trained in geology, biology and palaeoenvironmental analysis, my primary expertise is in palaeoecology and ichnology, but my work is multidisciplinary with a strong focus on the analysis of fossil specimens in the field and from museum collections.

Main research themes are:

(1) Trace fossils through time: using fossil burrows, tracks and trails as records of the responses of benthic animals to past climate change; patterns and implications of changes in bioturbation and foraging through past extinction events.

(2) Environmental change during the Permian and Mesozoic: evidence for, and consequences of, changes in atmospheric CO2, temperature, marine hypoxia, and continental weathering associated with the Late Permian, Late Triassic and early Jurassic extinction events.

(3) Palaeoecology of mass extinction events: patterns and drivers of ecological change through Phanerozoic extinction events; size change and the Lilliput effect; marine ecosystem functioning; fossil and rock record biases.