Millions of years ago, a soft-bodied creature died and was buried in mud. Normally, it should have vanished without a trace, but instead, it turned to stone — and today I figure out how this happened.

I study one of palaeontology’s most fundamental mysteries: how do animals become fossils? This is the science of taphonomy: investigating how things die, decay, and occasionally become fossils. Through museum-based fossil analysis, advanced analytical techniques, and hypothesis-driven decay experiments, I unpick the complex processes that transform soft tissues into stone — peeling back deep time, one rotting carcass at a time.

This site is my virtual CV and a window into my research. Want to talk science? Head to the About Me tab to get in touch.