Thomas Clements

I study one of palaeontology's most fundamental mysteries: how do animals 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.

My research spans a wild range of fossil and extant organisms — amphibians, fish, worms — but cephalopods hold a special place in my heart.

Lecturer on Invertebrate Zoology and Palaeontology at the University of Reading.