Professor Sarah Gabbott

I am fascinated in the biology and ecology of ancient organisms and ancestors – the story of life on Earth as read through the fossil record. I document and analyse the processes and patterns of the evolution, and the interactions between the biosphere and environment.

More recently I have employed the approaches and methods of palaeontology to bear on analysis and understanding of contemporary and future biosphere change, particularly relating to pollution of the environment by the actions of humans. I am especially interested in freshwater systems and have developed novel concepts to understand the cradle to grave journey of plastic materials – how they are cycled, transported, degraded and buried over short, medium and long timescales.

More detail

As a palaeobiologist I have focussed mostly on exceptionally preserved fossils, where remarkably the organic features of animals, which usually perish rapidly after death, have been transformed through a variety of processes to become geologically stable materials – faithfully recording long-extinct animal anatomy. From these fossils we can gain a much more detailed and comprehensive picture of ancient life, but first we must “read” them correctly. This can be challenging because during their formation processes such as transport, decay and sediment interactions have altered the physical and chemical state of the animal carcass compared to that of the fossil. Knowing how this occurs and when is critical to interpreting such fossils.

I use a variety of analytical techniques and novel laboratory decay experiments to understand the transformation of animal remains during fossilization. But also, to extract useful information from fossils we must take a holistic approach and understand not only how they formed, but where the animals lived and where the fossilization process occurred. To do this I undertake detailed investigation of the sediments in which fossils (or other organic matter) is found including looking at details of texture and chemistry to unravel the depositional process and environment.

More recently, as well as working on organic material that was once living, and is prone to decay, I have been applying my expertise to more durable and man-made organic compounds, such as plastic. In all this work I combine the design of laboratory experiments to model physical and chemical transformations, with data collected from real world samples to gain maximum understanding of how processes lead to preservation, or to loss, of originally organic material.

My current research projects in palaeobiology:

• Experimental decay: using novel laboratory experiments to understand decay processes and their impact on preservation and how we read the fossil record of life.
• The palaeobiology and taphonomy of fossil Lagerstȁtten: I work on exceptional preservation in a variety of deposits including those from the Cambrian (the Chengjiang biota, China and the Burgess Shale, Canada); the Ordovician Soom Shale (South Africa), the Devonian Miguasha (Quebec) and the Carboniferous (Mazon Creek, USA).
• Fossilized melanosomes and melanin in Chordates. This work utilises preservation of fossil melanosomes (the organelles in cells that manufacture and store the pigment melanin) to better understand vertebrate evolution, eye evolution and ecology in deep time.
• Shale sedimentology. This work involves detailed textural and chemical analyses of fine-grained sediments to reveal their depositional environment to constrain the conditions in which ancient animals lived, died and were fossilized.

My current research projects related to environmental science and plastics:

• The geological cycle of plastics: this includes laboratory experiments to understand how plastics are transported, degraded and deposited in the environment. In addition to evaluation of the Anthropogenic signal of plastics through time to the interactions of fish and microplastics.
• Plastic pollution in Leicester’s waterways and atmosphere. I design survey and monitoring methodologies to document and analyse the types, dynamics and flux of litter in urban waterways.
• I work at the interface of science and policy: applying data-informed solutions to environmental problems. For example, working with social scientists I presented the ‘Efficacy of Plastic Bag bans’ to Government of Malawi to assist their decision-making process around plastic use and misuse policy. The data I presented was used later in court to overturn a plastic-bag ban injunction.

Postdoctoral researchers

2015-2017: Scientific sponsor to Victoria McCoy funded by a Royal Society International Newton Fellowship grant working on ‘Soft tissue preservation in amber’.          

2015-2016: Principal Line Manager Changshi Qui a Chinese Scholarship Council funded post-doctorate working on the sedimentology and taphonomy of the Chengjiang Lagerstȁtte.     

2013-2017: Joint Line Manager (with Mark Purnell) to a Post Doctoral Research Associate Duncan Murdock (grade 7) on NERC funded standard research grant ‘Deuterostome decay – taphonomic testing of fossil anatomy and phylogenetic placement’.

2010-2012: Joint Line Manager (with Mark Purnell) to a Post Doctoral Research Associate Duncan Murdock (grade 7) on NERC funded standard research grant ‘Experimental decay of onychophorans - lobopodian anatomy and arthropod origins’. Now employed as Post Doctorate Researcher.

2008-2009: Joint Line Manager (with Mark Williams) to a Post Doctoral Research Associate Thomas Harvey (grade 6) on NERC funded standard research grant ‘Exceptional fossil preservation in the Comley Lagerstätte, Shropshire: testing the phylogeny of Early Cambrian animals’. Now employed as Lecturer Department of Geology, University of Leicester.

2008-2011: Principal Line Manager to a Post Doctoral Research Associate Robert Sansom (grade 7) on NERC funded standard research grant: “The problem of vertebrate origins – comparative taphonomy and gaps in the fossil record”. Now employed as a lecturer, University of Manchester

Research Assistants

Funded by Global Challenges Research Fund (Global Impact Accelerator Account) to Gabbott, Forchtner & Chiotha - Do plastic bag bans work, who do they affect and how?

2018-2020: Line manager to Dr Maria Gonzalez Aguado

2018-2020: Line manager to Dr Shuhan Chen

PhD students

2018-current: NERC CENTA funded PhD: Plastic a new anthropogenic component of the geological cycle: its chemical and physical behaviour and transformation. Alice Fugagnoli

2017-current (part-time): Yasmin Yonan PhD funded through Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo, but based in Leicester. Identifying the Anthropogenic plastic signal in sediments and what it tells us

2017-2021: Sarah Key NERC CENTA funded PhD: Degradation of plastics: the chemistry and solutions. Now employed by WRAP NGO.

2016-2021: Chris Nedza NERC CENTA funded PhD: Fossilized vertebrate melanosomes.

2015-2019 CASP funded. Michael Morton. Source rock sedimentology and isotope geochemistry.

2015-2017: Yujing Li Chinese Scholarship Council funded 2 years for Chinese Student to work with me (and Mark Williams) on fossils from the Chengjiang.

2014-2018 NERC funded. Tom Hearing. Cambrian environments from palaeoproxy analysis. Now employed at the University of Ghent as a post-doctorate researcher.

2013-2017 NERC funded. Leah Nolan. Isotopic reconstruction of Carboniferous climate.

2013-2017 NERC funded. Thomas Clements. The taphonomy of the Mazon Creek Lagerstȁtte. Now employed as a Leverhulme post-doctorate in research, University of Birmingham.

2010-2014 Syntax Grant funded. Oliver Knevitt. The taphonomy of the Silurian Eramosa.Now employed at Natural Environmental Research Council, UKRI.

2007-2011 Self-funded. David Riley. The taphonomy of the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, UK. Now employed as geologist at Chemostrat UK, Petroleum support company.    

2004-2008 Self-funded. Vince Williams. Oral food processing in ornithopod dinosaurs: implications of tooth microwear. Now employed as Geology A’level Teacher.     

2004-2008 Aggregate Industries funded. Ma Xiaoya. Fossils from the Early Cambrian Chengjiang biota, Yunnan Province, China. Now employed as a lecturer, University of Exeter.

2003-2007 NERC funded. Rowan Whittle. Invertebrate fossil from South Africa. Now employed as palaeontologist, British Antarctic Survey.     

2002-2005 NERC funded. Laura Braznell. Taphonomy of Carboniferous siderite-hosted Lagerstatten (Univerisity of Birmingham). 

2001-2004 NERC funded: Natalie Thomas. The taphonomy of a Carboniferous Lagerstätte. Now employed as Environmental Consultant.    

2000-2003 Greek Government Scholarship funded: George Illiopoulos. Fossils and chemistry of Miocene bones from Greece. Now employed as lecturer University of Patras, Greece.        

1. GL1100 First year tutor


2. GL2107 Major Events in the History of Life


3. GL4106 Urban geology and anthropogenic impacts


4. GL7106 Research design


5. Arran and Sicily field courses

I have a passion for widening the reach of my research to those that would not normally access it through the usual academic outputs. I have enjoyed undertaking activities and talks which enable science to be accessed by the general public, and in particular younger adults and children, in an exciting and understandable way. I have worked extensively in TV (Channel 4 series on palaeontology), radio and online and with newspapers. In 2017 I was selected to be 1 of 10 UK British Association Science Media Fellows and worked on secondment with the BBC.

BBC online articles I have authored

Did the first flower look like this?

Secrets of the World's toughest creatures revealed

Does the UK need a 'body farm' ?

Armoured tank-like dinosaur used camouflage to hide

Penguins feathers record migration route

First 'winged' mammals flew over dinosaurs

Pollination threatened by artificial light

I strive to get my research 'out there' as I am very keen to engender a sense of curiosity about our world and in particular enthuse and inform children and young adults. To do this, I write press releases, and undertake interviews with journalists (Newspapers, magazines, bloggers and TV and radio).

Some recent examples:

My work on plastic, littering and flooding in Leicester’s local waterways featured across the UK (and internationally e.g. Singapore, Australia, US and Canada) in the Daily Mail, Metro, BBC website, Radio and East Midlands News and other online outlets. Some links below.

BBC:

Daily Mail:

Leicester Mercury:

BBC Radio:

The paper on 'Nidelric Pugio published in Scientific Reports' (birds-nest-like fossil from Chengjiang) featured in Local and National Newspapers, and I recorded a feature on the BBC's CBBC Newsround (2014).

The 'Atlas of Decay' paper published in 'Palaeontology' received wide publicity including an editorial in Smithsonian magazine, Lab News and many online science sites (Wired, Science Now, Live Science and NERC Planet Earth Magazine) (2013).

The paper on chordate decay published in 'Nature' appeared on the BBC website and in several National and International newspapers (2010).

The paper on windiness in the Ordovician, published in 'Geology' was featured as an article in The Guardian National Newspaper and appeared in several online Science webpages (2010).

I was invited by 'The Conversation' to write an editorial on the Jehol exceptional preservation (2014).

Broadcasting experience

I have been an expert presenter on two Channel 4 TV programmes:

I was one of three experts playing a leading role on the TV show for children and young people 'Dinosaur Detectives' which followed a format similar to 'The Time Team' (audience  2.2 million). It has been repeated since on Channel 4, Sky and other networks across the world. (2002)

Owing to the success of 'Dinosaur Detectives' Channel 4 commissioned a 7 part series 'The Big Monster Dig' using the same format covering a wide-range of palaeontological stories from dinosaur eggs in the Pyrenees to giant fish in Peterborough. Typical audiences were 1.4 million in the UK and this programme was broadcast worldwide (e.g. USA, Australia, India). This series was the first of its kind in palaeontology and it has done much to raise awareness of geology and palaeontology and the importance of this science to understanding the world around us (2003-2007).

You can see the episodes on ‘4 on demand’

This TV work led to publicity across a wide spectrum of National Newspapers and magazines including a The TV and Radio Times, The Times Higher Education Supplement, the Guardian, the Mail, the Express and even Grazia.

In 2014, I appeared on CBBC Newsround talking about a new Chengjiang fossil named after Richard Aldridge.

Exhibitions for the general public

I successfully bid to the Royal Society to exhibit our research (with Mark Purnell and Rob Sansom) on how decay experiments can be used to better understand the fossil record of soft-bodied early vertebrates. With funding from the University, The Palaeontological Association, and The Natural Environment Research Council this culminated in an interactive exhibit  ‘Rotten fish and fossils: resolving the riddle of our earliest vertebrate ancestors’ which we have exhibited across the UK at these events:

• the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition (2011) with over 13,700 visitors
• UK Young Scientists and Engineers Fairs, Big Bang 2012 (London) and Big Bang 2013 (Birmingham): designed to raise awareness and dispel myths about STEM and careers within STEM. More than 115,000 young people, their teachers and parents attended
• Cheltenham Science Fair (2012); >10,000 visitors
• University Week at the Natural History Museum (2014)
• Highcross Shopping Centre, Leicester (2014)

These exhibitions have had a significant positive impact (for example, 60% of students after visiting Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2011 were more interested in science and science-based careers).

• Unit of Assessment 7 REF21 lead for School of Geography, Geology and Environment (2017-2022); included grading all academic outputs and author of Environment Statement for UoA7.
• Director of the Advanced Microscopy Facility across College of Science and Engineering (2016-2023)

• Invited member of the French ANR grant evaluation Committee for Living Earth (equivalent to RCUK) (2016-current; in 2017, 2018 Vice Chair of panel)
• British Association Media Fellow (2017): spent summer on secondment with BBC
• Invited Review Panel member for Centre for Landscape and Climate Research (UoL) (2017)
• Invited Scientific Editor for the Journal 'Palaeontology' (2015)
• Invited Convener for symposium on ‘Reading the record of shales: archives of past process, climate and life’. International Geological Congress, Cape Town (2016)
• Co-convener for symposium on Experimental Taphonomy, International Palaeontogical Congress, Argentina (2014)
• Invited Chair at Symposium, International Palaeontogical Congress, Argentina (2014)
• Shortlisted for the Times Higher Awards Research Project of the Year. 'The problem of vertebrate origins – comparative taphonomy and gaps in the fossil record' on which I was Principal Investigator (2011)
• Invited Chair of Symposium on Taphonomy, International Palaeontogical Congress, London (2010)
• Invited co-convenor and scientific member of the organizing committee for Discovery of the Burgess Shale: an international conference on the Cambrian explosion in Banff, Canada (2009)
• Invited speaker at Association for Science Education's Annual Meeting (attended by 3000 science teachers) to showcase Palaeontology to A-level teachers. Subsequently, aspects of my presentation were in articles in the Times Higher Education Supplement and Teaching Earth Science Magazine (2005)
• Council Member of the Palaeontological Association (2001-2004)
• Organising committee for the 47th Annual Paleontological Association Conference (Leicester) (2003)
• The President’s Award of the Geological Society of London which is given each year to 'a young geoscientist of outstanding talent and promise' (1998)
• Palaeontological Association prize for the best talk at the Annual Conference given by a researcher below the age of 30 (1996)

Departmental

• Research Assessment Framework Lead unit of assessment 7 (2017-2023)
• Deputy Director of Research School of Geography, Geology and Environment
• Director of Learning and Teaching for the Geology Department (2012-2015)
• Course Director for Geology with Palaeobiology BSc and MGeol. degrees (2014-current)
• Course Director for Geography with Geology BSc and MGeol. degrees (2014-current)
• Athena Swan Committee (2011-2014)
• Admissions Tutor Department of Geology (2005-2008)
• Board of Studies for the Geography with Geology BSc. (2000-2007)
• Course Director for the Geology with Palaeobiology BSc and MGeol. degree programmes. During this period I prepared the data and documentation required for successful Accreditation of these degrees (Geological Society of London). (2003-2004)
• Schools Liaison Tutor (2000-2004)

College and University

• College of Science and Engineering representative on University Research Infrastructure Advisory Group (2017- current)
• University Student Experience and Enhancement Group (2015-current)
• College of Science and Engineering Academic Committee (2012-2016)
• College of Science and Engineering representative on Academic Policy Committee (2014 to 2016)
• Panel Member for Department of Physics Periodic Development Review (2015)
• Member of Course Approval Panel for new degrees (2012-2015)

Total approximately: £5.93 Million

Awards to purchase state-of-the-art Electron Microscopes and analytical equipment for research

2022: EPSRC: CoI. A CrystalCT combined with CrossBeam Scanning Electron Microscope (PI Bo Chen, UoL). Correlative Analysis of Crystals in 3D, EP/X014614/1. £2.7Million.

2021: BBSRC: CoI. A high resolution, multi-functional scanning electron microscope for a multiuser interdisciplinary BioEM facility (PI Julie Morrissey, UoL). Grant Reference: BB/V019503/1 £690,907

2018:  UoL Equipment grant to Boom and Gabbott to purchase a state-of the Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) for analysis of environmental plastics. £188,000

2016: PI on UoL Equipment grant to fund purchase of two state-of-the art Environmental chamber Scanning Electron Microscopes to analyse environmental materials (a Zeiss 300 and an Fei Quanta 650). £1.1Million.

Awards to fund my research on Plastics

2019: Funded by Global Challenges Research Fund (Global Impact Accelerator Account to Gabbott, Forchtner, Chiotha) - Do plastic bag bans work, who do they affect and how?. This employed two postdoctoral research assistants to investigate plastic bag bans across the globe.

2019: The ACU (Association of Commonwealth Universities) Blue Charter Fellowship - part of the Commonwealth Marine Plastics Research and Innovation Framework (to Biswick and Gabbott). This has funded Dr Timothy Biswick to undertake fieldwork to collect, quantify and analyse the type and abundance  of microplastic in and around Lake Malawi, and for him to visit Leicester for up to 6 months to work on this project.

2018: International Development Fund HEFCE project (to Gabbott, Forchtner, Williams, Ogot and Chiotha):  The scale and impact of plastic pollution in East Africa: data informed solutions. This funded the Leicester Plastics team (Gabbott, Forchtner, Williams, Heintz) to hold a Workshop event in Nairobi and to initiate a consortium of academics from both science and social science (from Kenya, Malawi and UK) to develop a research program to investigate the scale and impacts of plastic pollution within a socio-ecological framework.

2018: Funded by Environment Agency, Seven Trent Water and Leicester City Council: Plastics, water quality and wildlife: the river monster project (to Gabbott). This funded a project to survey and monitor litter in a heavily polluted tributary of the River Soar – the Willow Brook. Optimum survey design for capturing fluctuations in litter type and abundance linked with flow rate data (and weather) was a primary goal. Analytical and modelling techniques were also developed and novel statistical techniques applied to reveal patterns in litter presence and behaviour.

Awards to fund my research in Palaeobiology, palaeoecology and evolution

My palaeobiology research is very focused on academic rather than applied or industry based work. Consequently, it has been funded almost exclusively through competitively won grants from NERC (£1.16Million in total over 7 years).

In addition, The Royal Society, the National Geographic Magazine and The Geological Society of London and the British Geological Survey have provided additional funding for my projects. I continue to actively develop and apply for funding to underpin new research.

2015

Royal Society International Newton Fellowship to Victoria McCoy. This funds 2 years post-doctoral research to work on the project ‘Soft tissue preservation in amber’. £95,963.

Chinese Scholarship Council awarded to Changshi Qi and Gabbott to fund a year’s post-doctoral research for Changshi Qi to work on the sedimentology and geochemistry of the Cambrian Chengjiang with Gabbott. £15,000.

2014

Palaeontological Association grant to fund Symposium ‘Rotten fossils? Experimental and analytical approaches to decay and exceptional preservation of soft tissues’ at the 4th International Palaeontological Congress, Mendoza, Argentina. £2000.

2013

National Geographic Explorers Award in Research to fund drilling in South Africa and research on ‘The winds of change: did dust blown from a glacial landscape fertilize the ocean after the end-Ordovician glaciation?’ €20,000. Principal Investigator.

Association of European Marine Biological Laboratories to fund collection trip for amphioxus (travel, subsistence, lab space, boat time etc.). Principal Investigator.

Systematics and Taxonomy (SynTax) grant to fund ‘Taphonomic bias in taxonomic and systematic analysis of fossils from the Silurian Eramosa Lagerstätte, Canada’. £18,307. Co-investigator (with Mark Purnell).

Natural Environmental Research Council FeC Standard Grant to fund ‘Deuterostome decay – taphonomic testing of fossil anatomy and phylogenetic placement’. Co-investigator (with Mark Purnell). £551,943.

2011

Natural Environmental Research Council FeC Small Research Grant to fund ‘Experimental decay of onychophorans - lobopodian anatomy and arthropod origins’. Co-investigator (with Mark Purnell). £65,959.

2010

Natural Environmental Research Council FeC NIGL grant to fund ‘Preservation and taphonomy of the fossils of the Herefordshire (Silurian) Konservat-Lagerstätte’. Principal Investigator. £12,000.

2009

Natural Environmental Research Council FeC Small Research Grant to fund ‘Exceptional fossil preservation in the Comley Lagerstätte, Shropshire: testing the phylogeny of Early Cambrian animals’. Co-investigator (with Mark Williams and David Siveter). £83,329.

2008

Natural Environmental Research Council FeC Standard Grant to fund ‘The problem of vertebrate origins – comparative taphonomy of non-biomineralized chordates and the meaning of gaps in the fossil record’. Principal Investigator. £414,541.

2007

The Geological Society of London Elgar Wood fund awarded to fund research materials. Principal Investigator. £600.

2005

The Geological Society of London Gloyne Outdoor Geological Research Fund for fieldwork in South Africa. PRINCIPAL Investigator. £865.

2004

Royal Society Small Research Grant ‘The preservation and palaeobiology of Cambrian animals’ to fund collaborative work in China on the Chengjiang biota, and visits by Chinese colleagues to UK. Co-investigator (with David Siveter). £12,000.

2002

Royal Society Equipment Grant to purchase a Petroscope. Principal Investigator (CoI Jan Zalasiewicz). £5451.

Royal Society Conference grant to attend First Australian Palaeontological Congress, Sydney. £739.

1999

UoL Research Grant for new lecturers ‘The geochemistry and sedimentology of the Cambrian Burgess Shale’ £3000.