Mark Andrew Purnell is a British

palaeontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

, Professor of Palaeobiology at the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

. Purnell is an expert in

conodont Conodonts, are an extinct group of marine jawless vertebrates belonging to the class Conodonta (from Ancient Greek κῶνος (''kōnos''), meaning " cone", and ὀδούς (''odoús''), meaning "tooth"). They are primarily known from their hard ...

biostratigraphy Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock strata by using the fossil assemblages contained within them.Hine, Robert. "Biostratigraphy." ''Oxford Reference: Dictionary of Biology ...

(principally

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

) and conodont palaeobiology, focussing especially on attempts to uncover the function of

elements. Using conventional functional morphology,Purnell, M. A. and von Bitter, P. H. 1992. Blade-shaped conodont elements functioned as cutting teeth. ''Nature'' 359: 629-631 physical modelling Purnell, M. A. and Donoghue, P. C. J. 1998. Architecture and functional morphology of the skeletal apparatus of ozarkodinid conodonts. ''Palaeontology'' 41: 57-102 and microwearPurnell, M. A. 1995. Microwear on conodont elements and macrophagy in the first vertebrates. ''Nature'' 374: 798-800 analysis, Purnell uncovered unequivocal evidence that conodont elements had performed a mechanical tooth function in life, resolving a palaeobiological debate that had run for more than a century. His work has expanded in recent years to analysing feeding mechanisms of extinct

vertebrate Vertebrates () are animals with a vertebral column (backbone or spine), and a cranium, or skull. The vertebral column surrounds and protects the spinal cord, while the cranium protects the brain. The vertebrates make up the subphylum Vertebra ...

s more generally,Purnell, M. A. 2002. Feeding in extinct jawless heterostracan fishes and testing scenarios of early vertebrate evolution. ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B'' 269: 83-88 Purnell, M. A., Bell, M. A., Baines, D. C., Hart, P. J. B. and Travis, M. P. 2007. Correlated evolution and dietary change in fossil stickleback. ''Science'' 317: 1887 exploiting microwear, including validation studies based on extant

stickleback The sticklebacks are a family of ray-finned fishes, the Gasterosteidae which have a Holarctic distribution in fresh, brackish and marine waters. They were thought to be related to the pipefish and seahorses but are now thought to be more close ...

fish.Purnell, M. A., Hart, P. J. B., Baines, D. C. and Bell, M. A. 2006. Quantitative analysis of dental microwear in threespine stickleback: a new approach to analysis of trophic ecology in aquatic vertebrates. ''Journal of Animal Ecology'' 75: 967-977 Purnell was awarded the Hinde Medal of the Pander society in 2006 and served as Vice-President of the

Palaeontological Association The Palaeontological Association (PalAss for short) is a charitable organisation based in the UK founded in 1957 for the promotion of the study of palaeontology and its allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals ...

from 2003-2005. In 2009, Purnell conducted a study into the chewing methods and diet of

hadrosaurid Hadrosaurids (), also hadrosaurs or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod fami ...

s, a

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

species of duck-billed

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s from the Late Cretaceous period. The study, which Purnell co-authored with paleontologist Paul Barrett and graduate student Vince Williams, was published on 30 June 2009 in the journal, '' The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences''. By analyzing hundreds of microscopic scratches on the teeth of a fossilized ''

Edmontosaurus ''Edmontosaurus'' ( ) (meaning "lizard from Edmonton"), with the second species often colloquially and historically known as ''Anatosaurus'' or ''Anatotitan'' (meaning "duck lizard" and "giant duck"), is a genus of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) din ...

'' jaw, the team determined hadrosaurs had a unique way of eating unlike any creature living today. In contrast to a flexible lower jaw joint prevalent in today's mammals, hadrosaurs had a unique hinge between the upper jaws and the rest of its skull. The team found the dinosaur's upper jaws pushed outwards and sideways while chewing, as the lower jaw slid against the upper teeth. The study also found that hadrosaurs likely grazed on horsetails and vegetation close to the ground, rather than browsing higher-growing leaves and twigs. However, Purnell said these conclusions were less secure than the more conclusive evidence regarding the motion of teeth while chewing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Purnell, Mark British palaeontologists Conodont specialists Alumni of the University of Nottingham Alumni of Newcastle University Academics of the University of Leicester Living people Year of birth missing (living people)