Major gaps remain in our knowledge of the origin of novel vertebrate structures such as the mineralised skeleton; jaws and internal fertilisation. The fossil group I study are palcoderms, the oldest verterbates with jaws and paired pelvic and pectoral fins  .

Fossils provide direct evidence for major evolutionary transformations, as shown for example by our recent  discovery; that of demonstrated live birth, providing the earliest evidence of advanced reproductive structures including the presence of fossil embryos and an umbilical cord .

We named this fossil after Sir David Attenborough 

Me and my team are working to overcome the limited amount of information fossils provide (becasue usually only the bones are preserved )

through an unprecedented 3D study,

using CT scanning 

and  new synchrotron imaging of fossils ,

allowing us to reconstruct fossil anatomy at the sub micron level .

This accuracy, not previously possible enables the construction of integrative hypotheses linking molecular and morphological evolution