Elizabeth Harper

I use the biological palaeontological record of invertebrates, such as molluscs and brachiopods, to understand both their evolution and to explore the adaptations to their environments.

 

Research Area

I use a range of zoological and palaeontological techniques to unravel the intrinsic and extrinsic controls that have shaped evolution. My main targets are molluscs and brachiopods as these have been important components of marine faunas throughout the Phanerozoic.

My main research areas include:

1. Biomineralization – understanding the diversity and characterizing shells as a way of understanding their evolution, adaptive significance and also providing key information concerning shelly organisms’ ability to cope with future environmental change.  I use a range of techniques (e.g. electron microscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, XRD, EBSD and EDX). Recent postgraduate students have focused on spatial variation in shell compositions of modern molluscs and brachiopods over geographic areas and investigating changes over the last c.100 years for which we have environmental records.
2. Predator-prey relationships – principally as a way to recognise the distribution of different forms of predation pressure over time and space, with a view understanding global biodiversity.  In particular I am interested in the course of the Mesozoic Marine Revolution during both the Mesozoic and Cenozoic.
3. Adaptive radiations and the evolution of the modern biota  

I have strong collaborative links with the British Antarctic Survey and the Natural History Museum (London).

 

Project Interests

I am very happy to develop projects within the general areas of biomineralization and (palaeo)ecology. I particularly welcome multidisciplinary studies which meld together both Recent and historic and, or fossil data. I am particularly interested to exploit the vast collections of the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, as well field work collecting either modern or fossil materia.  I am very interested in developing studies on less well investigated shell taxa, within the molluscs and other phyla, as well as within my core groups.   I am especially keen to  understand trends in structural evolution of shells and to develop an understanding of Cenozoic predator-prey relationships in marine communities.