Dr Mike Day

I am a curator in the Fossil Reptiles, Amphibians, and Birds Section here at the NHM. The collections under my care include the non-mammalian synapsids, parareptiles, Mesozoic Mammaliaformes, pterosaurus, crocodylomorphs, and birds. In this role, my duties involve ensuring that collections are well maintained, improving their digital records and storage, accessioning new material, working with the outreach branches of the Museum, and facilitating scientific visitors.

I also pursue my own research: I spent 8 years in South Africa and consequently my main area of interest centres on the evolution of vertebrate ecosystems in the Middle Permian (265-259 million years ago) of the South African Karoo Basin. In particular, this time period encompasses a relatively poorly-understood mass extinction event, the late Capitanian mass extinction, and much of my work involves understanding how this proceeded, its effects on terrestrial vertebrate life, and its potential causes. I am helping lead a project aiming to provide better temporal constraints on this Permian Karoo fossil record, and thus provide a better understanding of the tempo of evolutionary events. I collaborate on many other projects studying footprints, floras and sedimentology from the Middle Permian of South Africa. I have spent a lot of time collecting fossils in South Africa and am continuing to do so.