Our research interests cover a broad range of macroevolutionary and macroecological topics from mass extinctions to biogeography and from the development of quantitative methods to analyse biodiversity patterns through deep time to investigating themes of biodiversity across a range of disciplines spanning the sciences, arts and humanities.
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Research themes
- Biodiversity, biogeography and extinction patterns through the Phanerozoic
- Macro- and community ecological patterns across extinction events
- Linking past mass extinctions to the current/future biodiversity decline(s)
- Biodiversity patterns through deep time and linking the evolution of life and planet
- Testing the quality of the fossil record
- Cross-disciplinary biodiversity research
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Current Projects
- The longest delay: the slow recovery from the Hangenberg mass extinction (NERC Panorama DTP project) (2024-)
- A predator-prey arms race in the Mesozoic ocean (NERC Panorama DTP project) (2024-)
- Changing oxygen levels and the evolution of animal size (self-funded PGR project) (2024-)
- Community and Structural Collapse During Mass Extinctions (CASCaDE) (NERC/NSF funded) (2024-present)
- Dynamics and response of ecosystems to mass extinctions, in the context of Middle Jurassic (Leverhulme Extinction Studies DTP project) (2023-)
- Predicting future changes to coral reef functioning and species interactions from past coral reef extinctions (Leverhulme Extinction Studies DTP project) (2022-)
- Rhetoric and Empathy: The Role of Ecopoetry in Conceptualising Mass Extinction Events (Leverhulme Extinction Studies DTP project) (2022-)
- Regional investigation of extinction-recovery patterns during the Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) hyperthermal event (NERC Panorama DTP project) (2022-)
- What were the trophic consequences of the extinction of the largest apex predator of all time? (NERC Panorama DTP project) (2021-)
- Ecosystem robustness through Earth history (Leverhulme Extinction Studies DTP project) (2021-)
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Past Projects
- Ecosystem Recovery Following the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction (NERC funded) (2023-2024)
- Lilliput sharks and marine apex predators of the Permo-Triassic (Palaeontological Association funded) (2023)
- Deep-fried calamari? The effect of Early Triassic extreme global warming on cephalopod biogeography (Palaeontological Association funded) (2020)
- Biodiversity in the extreme world of Pangaea (NERC Spheres DTP project) (2017-2021)
- Reconstructing food webs across the Toarcian Ocean Anoxic Event (Palaeontological Association funded) (2017)
- Death in the Oceans: extinction risk in the marine realm (NERC Spheres DTP project) (2016-2021)
- Survival of the smallest? Trends in brachiopod size across the End-Triassic mass extinction (Palaeontological Association funded) (2016)
- Geographic and environmental determinants of extinction in the Triassic-Jurassic (Leverhulme Trust funded) (2015-2018)
- Ecosystem resilience across the Permo-Triassic boundary (EcoPT) (NERC funded) (2015-2020)
- Refugia of Future’s Past (White Rose University Consortium funded) (2015-2018)
- How does biogeography determine species extinction? (Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 funded) (2012-2015)
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I am always on the look-out for enthusiastic researchers who might want to join the lab. If you have a project, proposal or funding stream in mind, drop me an email at a.dunhill@leeds.ac.uk or check out the opportunities currently listed to join the team.
DeepBio@Leeds 