3) Evolution of Ecospace Occupancy by Marine Reptiles during the Mesozoic

1) The palaeoenvironment and biostratigraphical significance of the conchostracans from the Late Triassic fissure deposits of Bristol and South Wales. 2 2) Body size evolution in Parareptilia and the influence of (re-)scaling on macroevolutionary studies 3 3) Evolution of ecospace occupancy by marine reptiles during the Mesozoic 4 4) Conulariid affinity, cnidarian phylogeny and the origin of Eumetazoa 5 5) Establishing an evolutionary timescale for the plant kingdom using fossils and molecules 6 6) Evolution of disparity in human language and culture 7 7) Ungulate Community Dynamics in North America – A Study of the Radiation of North American Camelids 8 8) Was the testudine radiation driven by climatic changes? 9 9) To what extent do 2D FEA models capture 3D mechanical behaviour 10 10) Reconstructing the function of early mammals 12 11) Anatomy and function of the rhizodont skull 14 12) Carnivore Community Dynamics in Africa – Changes in Hyaenidae ecological diversity and the influence of Canidae 16 13) Links between rates of change and ecosystem reaction in the fossil record 17 14) Mechanisms of evolution – assessing heterochrony 18 15) Environmental impacts on foraminiferal calcification 19 16) Anomalocaridid frontal appendage functional diversity 20 17) Constraining the origin of bivalves: morphology, fossils and molecules 21 18) Bacteria or melanosomes? 22 19) Re-evaluating the root of the tree of life 23 20) The evolution of branching forms in plants 25 2 1) The palaeoenvironment and biostratigraphical significance of the conchostracans from the Late Triassic fissure deposits of Bristol and South Wales. There has been much debate about the dating and palaeoenvironment of Triassic terrestrial vertebrate faunas of the fissure fillings in the Carboniferous limestone outcrops in and around Bristol. The presence of numerous 'clam shrimps', fossils of the conchostracan Euestheria, are a key feature of the deposits that can provide critical evidence but have never been investigated. The study will investigate the population structure and environmental evidence deduced from the conchostracans that are associated with tetrapod-bearing rocks from Cromhall, Tytherington and Pant-y-ffynnon. Those quarries can be visited to study the fissures in the field. The student will compile descriptions of hand specimens containing hundreds of individual clam shrimps collected previously and the option of searching for others in the field. It will then be necessary to establish how the fissure conchostracans relate biostratigraphically and palaeoenvironmentally to Euestheria from other Late Triassic beds in the U.K. and elsewhere. The project involves …