Natural Sciences

I have wide-ranging research interests in all aspects of palaeontology, palaeoclimatology and carbonate sedimentology, with particular reference to the Carboniferous. I am interested in the genesis and development of carbonate mud-mounds, microbialites and evaporites and their impacts on coeval biota. My PhD examined facies change and palaeoenvironments in the Carboniferous (Mississippian) Shannon Basin, western Ireland, based principally on detailed field and lab-based analysis of carbonate sedimentology, petrography and palaeontology (macro & micro-palaeontology and palaeoecology). A significant element of the project involved the description of an unusual form of calcitised evaporite ('striped limestone'), which forms an 'event horizon' right across the basin. More recent Carboniferous research has focussed on conodont biostratigraphy, and also the timing and magnitude of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age, utilising stable isotope proxies preserved in conodont microfossils.

I have supervised research on the palaeontology and taphonomy of paropsonemids - an enigmatic group of soft-bodied discoidal fossil animals, including from Ordovician-aged field sites in Morocco. This work has helped to improve our understanding of the preservation and early evolution of Paleozoic marine ecosystems and it also afforded a greater insight into the preservation of some of the oldest, most important and controversial fossil organisms - the Ediacaran Biota. 

In terms of Quaternary research, the late Pleistocene to Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of Galway Bay has been investigated using a combination of detailed sedimentology, geochemistry and foraminiferal micropalaeontology. I also actively collaborate with an international team examining Middle to Late Pleistocene hominin evolution and migration.