Sarah Gabbott is a palaeobiologist from the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_la ...

. She is known for her research on decomposition and fossilization. Her focus is soft-bodied animals, details of which are often lost during decay.

Early life and education

Gabbott received an undergraduate degree in geology from the

University of Southampton , mottoeng = The Heights Yield to Endeavour , type = Public research university , established = 1862 – Hartley Institution1902 – Hartley University College1913 – Southampton University Coll ...

. She went on to receive a doctorate in paleobiology from the

on the topic of Soom Shale fossils. She remained at the University of Leicester as a post-doctoral researcher before being appointed lecturer.

Career

Gabbott leads a paleobiology lab at the University of Leicester which studies the way primitive vertebrates, such as

hagfish Hagfish, of the class Myxini (also known as Hyperotreti) and order Myxiniformes , are eel-shaped, slime-producing marine fish (occasionally called slime eels). They are the only known living animals that have a skull but no vertebral column, ...

or rag worms, decompose. This work sheds light on the process of

fossilization A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserve ...

by determining which types of tissues are preserved and which of them rot away rapidly. The findings can improve the quality of modern reconstructions or restorations based on fossils. In particular, features that evolved more recently were among the first to decay, causing fossils to appear like their ancestors and making identification more difficult. Gabbott also studies environmental factors to fossil preservation. She often works with extremely well-preserved fossils such as those from the Burgess Shales or the Soom Shale. In 2016, Gabbott's team determined that ''

Tullimonstrum ''Tullimonstrum'', colloquially known as the Tully monster or sometimes Tully's monster, is an extinct genus of soft-bodied bilaterian animal that lived in shallow tropical coastal waters of muddy estuaries during the Pennsylvanian geological ...

'' is a vertebrate based on cellular structures in the eyes. Further investigations into eye tissues of jawless fish fossils showed that vision was more developed in Carboniferous hagfish than in their modern counterparts. This process is known as regressive evolution. Gabbott's research interest include soft-bodied animals from the

Cambrian Period The Cambrian Period ( ; sometimes symbolized Ꞓ) was the first geological period of the Paleozoic Era, and of the Phanerozoic Eon. The Cambrian lasted 53.4 million years from the end of the preceding Ediacaran Period 538.8 million years ago (m ...

. In 2017, she studied symbiotic relationships between worms after fossils of ''Inquicus fellatus'' were found attached to the larger ''Cricocosmia jinnigensis'' and ''Mafangscolex sinensi''. In 2018, Gabbott was a co-discoverer of the

chancelloriid The Chancelloriids are an extinct family of superficially sponge-like animals common in sediments from the Early Cambrian to the early Late Cambrian. Many of these fossils consists only of spines and other fragments, and it is not certain that t ...

species ''Allonnia nuda''. Since 2017, she has expanded her research focus to address the long-term effects of plastic in the environment. Gabbott is Director of the Advanced Microscopy Centre at the University of Leicester Department of Engineering. In 2003, Gabbott was featured on the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

series "The Big Monster Dig".

Awards and honours

* 1998 President's Award of the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

* 1994 Annual Meeting President's Prize 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 allied sciences. Publications The Association publishes two main journals: ' ...

Personal life

Gabbott is a contributor to BBC online science articles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gabbott, Sarah Paleobiologists Academics of the University of Leicester Alumni of the University of Leicester Alumni of the University of Southampton Year of birth missing (living people) Living people