Mark Purnell

Who is Mark Purnell?

Dr Mark Andrew Purnell is a British palaeontologist, Reader of Geology at the University of Leicester.

Purnell is an expert in conodont biostratigraphy and conodont palaeobiology, focussing especially on attempts to uncover the function of conodont elements. Using conventional functional morphology, physical modelling and microwear 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 vertebrates more generally, exploiting microwear, including validation studies based on extant stickleback fish.

Purnell was awarded the Hinde Medal of the Pander society in 2006 and served as Vice-President of the Palaeontological Association from 2003-2005.

In 2009, Purnell conducted a study into the chewing methods and diet of hadrosaurids, a herbivore species of duck-billed dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous period.