Dr Emily G. Mitchell.
​Group Leader
Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology
Curator of non-insect Invertebrates, Museum of Zoology

Emily's research investigates the role of ecological processes on evolution through deep-time, from the first animal communities of the Ediacaran to the present.  My research is inherently interdisciplinary, innovating new quantitative approaches to understand early animal life, utilising techniques from across biology, mathematics and palaeontology to revolutionise our understanding of these early animals.   To understand more broadly how ecology impacts evolution through deep-time, I work on a range of Phanerozoic benthic ecosystems, as well as modern benthic communities.  I am also interesting in understanding how life may evolve outside the Earth, particularly on Hycean exoplanets.
​Dr Greg Cooke,
LCLU Postdoctoral Researcher
Greg is working with Prof Nikku Madhusan in the IoA investigating the range of habitable conditions possible on Hycean worlds given the wide range of their bulk and orbital parameters, atmospheric composition, the range of environments on Earth which host conditions similar to those expected in Hycean worlds so as to provide terrestrial benchmarks, and the biological dynamics of Hycean-like ecosystems.

Nile Stephenson
Kings College Research Fellow 
Nile is working on understanding how benthic communities change through time, starting with the first animal ecosystems of the Ediacaran to modern tropical soft coral communities.   We work with Andrea Manica in the Department of Zoology . 





Princess Buma-at
PhD Student
Princess is investigating morphological traits of Ediacaran organisms, figuring out what the key traits are that drive the ecological dynamics. She is co-supervised by Charlotte Kenchington, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge and Jason Head, Department of Zoology, and funded by a NERC C-CLEAR DTP studentship and a Department of Zoology SBS studentship.






Lea Katz
PhD student at Université Libre de Bruxelles
Lea's research focuses on shallow water Antarctic benthic systems.  Over her PhD she has been doing a fine-scale quantitative census of benthic biodiversity in the Western Antarctic Peninsula  using ROV imagery and 3D modelling techniques.  Her work aims to delineate the drivers of ecosystem responses to environmental changes in the Western Antarctic Peninsula, exploring how community dynamics change over different habitats and spatial scales. Her primary supervisor is Bruno Danis



Shujie Chang
MPhil Student
Shujie is working on exploring how the phylogenetic relatedness of the Avalon assemblage impacts the ecological dynamics within Avalonian Ediacaran communities. He is co-supervised by Frankie Dunn at the Oxford Museum of Natural History.


​
Ayaka Paul
PhD Student
Ayaka's research is focused on understanding the fine-scale benthic community dynamics in coral reefs, with a focus on understudied benthic taxa such as soft coral communities. She is co-supervised by Andrea Manica in the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and James Davis Reimer from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, Japan, and is funded by the Trinity Cambridge Research Studentship (TCRS).


​

Dr Charlotte Kenchington
Research Associate
Charlotte's primary interests lie in investigating the interplay between early complex life and its habitat. This work involves both Ediacaran fossils from southern Namibia, central England, and Newfoundland Canada as well as modern reef systems. Ultimately, her work will help us understand better the biological and abiological processes that shaped the evolution of our animal ancestors and paved the way for modern ecosystems. She is based in the Department of Earth Sciences.
​​
Former DTE members
​
Dr Stephen Pates​
NERC Independent Research Fellow,  Assistant Professor, UCL.
As a Herchel Smith Postdoctoral Fellow, my research explores the interaction between form and function in arthropods - the group that includes modern insects, spiders, and crustaceans. I apply statistical and engineering methodologies to quantify the morphology and hydrodynamics of extant and extinct animals, evaluate possible examples of evolutionary convergence, and better understand how environmental controls may have shaped the evolution of animals in deep time.  More details about Stephen's work can be found here.
​​
Dr Katie Delahooke 
Former PhD Student
Katie's PhD investigated the evolutionary ecology of the Avalonian fossils of Newfoundland.  She was co-supervised by Alex Liu, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. Katie now works as a Senior researcher a conservation NGO.


​
Dr Ming Khan 
Former PhD Student
Ming.s PhD investigated Antarctic benthic ecology using spatial analyses and Bayesian network inference, using both modern and Mesozoic data.  She was co-supervised by Huw Griffths and Rowan Whittle at British Antarctic Survey, and Andrea Manica in the Department of Zoology and was funded by a Cambridge Trust  and Newnham College studentship.  Ming is now a postdoctoral research associate at FAU.


​
Dr Euan Furness
Former LCLU Postdoctoral Researcher
Euan worked on an integrated model that captures the myriad of interactions and dynamics associated with the Ediacaran to Cambrian transition – in other words, the shift from a bottom-up microbial world to one controlled largely by animals, from the top-down. This work was done in collaboration with Nick Butterfield, Department of Earth Sciences and was funded by the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe.​

 Undergraduate research students and field assistants

DTE with summer interns trip to New Walk Museum, Leicester to visit their Ediacaran fossils.

Dr Alavya Dhungana MSci project 2018 - 2019: Resolving the affinity of the Ediacaran fossil Aspidella. Co-supervised with Dr Alex Liu.
Erin Leahy  MSci project 2019 - 2020: Ediacaran super-traits. Co-supervised with Dr Alex Liu.
Catherine Clark, MSci project 2016 - 2017: Facultative sexual reproduction in an Ediacaran Organism.
Lucy Roberts and Sasha Dennis 2018 Field assistants, Newfoundland Canada.
​Becky Eden, Undergraduate Project 2019-2020: Ediacaran meta-communities. Co-supervised with Prof Andrea Manica.
Phil Vixseboxse, Summer research Project 2020: Orientations of Ediacaran fronds.
Nicole Barnes, Summer research Project 2021: Ediacaran stemmed taxa.
Garðar Ingvarsson, Undergraduate Project 2021-2022: ​Deep-sea organism detection and classification. Co-supervised with Dr Chris Town. 
Alicia Cox, Summer student 2021 supervised by Dr Steven Pates: Morphological variation in the earliest cosmopolitan arthropods.
Callum Hill, Summer student 2021: Ediacaran ecology.
Princess Buma-at, NERC REP Summer student 2021: Understanding the impact of MISS on Ediacaran community ecology.
Sanaa Mughal, IPLU summer student 2021, with Dr Paul Rimmer and Dr Oli Shorttle: Ecological dynamics of shadow biospheres. 
Linus Leong, Undergraduate Project 2022-2023: ​Deep-sea organism detection and classification. Co-supervised with Dr Chris Town. 
Sathujan Manmatharajah​, Undergraduate Project 2022-2023: Clam shells as microcosms of competition dynamics. 
Alicia Cox​, Undergraduate Project 2022-2023 supervised by Dr Steven Pates: How do chitons grow?
Max Burns, Undergraduate Project 2022-2023 supervised by Dr Steven Pates: How do chitons grow?
Lara Gough, LCLU Summer intern 2023 supervised by  Dr Steven Pates: Impact of the first arthropods on the biosphere.
Amal Shakir, Undergraduate Project 2023-2024: How are deep sea reefs structured? 
Harry Thomson,  Undergraduate Project 2023-2024: Arctic deep sea benthic community ecology .
Sankalp Kapur, Undergraduate Project 2023-2024: Scleractinia Metacommunity and Diversity Through the Cenozoic.
Zhiru Guoli, Undergraduate Project 2023-2024: An analysis of changes in stony corals metacommunity over mass extinctions.
Lauren Pooley, NERC REP Summer student 2024 supervised by Nile Stephenson: Recovery of coral reefs post cyclones.
Tamara Buja, LCLU Summer intern 2024 supervised by Dr Euan Furness: Simulating the impact of biodiversity on the biosphere.
Grace Forward Undergraduate Project 2024-2025 co-supervised with Prof Andrea Manica: Network dynamics of benthic communities.

DTE 2021-5

2025