Derek Briggs

About

Derek Briggs is the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Earth & Planetary Sciences at Yale University and a Curator at the Yale Peabody Museum. His primary research interest is in the preservation and evolutionary significance of exceptionally preserved fossil biotas. His work involves a range of approaches, including experimental studies on decay and fossilization processes, studies of early diagenetic mineralization and organic preservation, and field work on extraordinary fossil occurrences. Briggs has contributed significantly to understanding the conditions that lead to exceptional preservation, demonstrating that many types of such fossils are not confined to unique settings and applying chemical and mineralogical analyses to investigate soft-tissue fossilization. His research has revealed insights into the fossilization of soft tissues, the preservation of organic compounds like melanin, and the modes of biomineralization, providing critical information on the evolutionary history of various groups. Briggs has also explored the diversity of Cambrian to Silurian fossils, including Burgess Shale-type deposits, and has developed novel methods for interpreting fossil color and ecology. His work has expanded knowledge of early animal evolution, the conditions of fossilization, and the diversity of ancient life, making him a leading figure in paleontology and fossil preservation.

Research topics

• Biology
• Ecology
• Zoology
• Paleontology
• Evolutionary biology

Selected publications

• Fossil biomolecules reveal an avian metabolism in the ancestral dinosaur

  Nature · 2022 · 78 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Crab in amber reveals an early colonization of nonmarine environments during the Cretaceous

  Science Advances · 2021 · 27 citations

  Amber fossils provide snapshots of the anatomy, biology, and ecology of extinct organisms that are otherwise inaccessible. The best-known fossils in amber are terrestrial arthropods—principally insects—whereas aquatic organisms are rarely represented. Here, we present the first record of true crabs (Brachyura) in amber—from the Cretaceous of Myanmar [~100 to 99 million years (Ma)]. The new fossil preserves large compound eyes, delicate mouthparts, and even gills. This modern-looking crab is nest…

  DOI

• Fossilisation processes and our reading of animal antiquity

  Trends in Ecology & Evolution · 2023-06-27 · 25 citations

  reviewOpen accessSenior author

  Estimates for animal antiquity exhibit a significant disconnect between those from molecular clocks, which indicate crown animals evolved ∼800 million years ago (Ma), and those from the fossil record, which extends only ∼574 Ma. Taphonomy is often held culpable: early animals were too small/soft/fragile to fossilise, or the circumstances that preserve them were uncommon in the early Neoproterozoic. We assess this idea by comparing Neoproterozoic fossilisation processes with those of the Cambrian…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Controls on authigenic mineralization in experimental Ediacara‐style preservation

  Geobiology · 2024-07-01 · 13 citations

  article

  The earliest evidence of complex macroscopic life on Earth is preserved in Ediacaran-aged siliciclastic deposits as three-dimensional casts and molds, known as Ediacara-style preservation. The mechanisms that led to this extraordinary preservation of soft-bodied organisms in fine- to medium-grained sandstones have been extensively debated. Ediacara-style fossilization is recorded in a variety of sedimentary facies characterized by clean quartzose sandstones (as in the eponymous Ediacara Member)…

  PublisherDOI

• A vicissicaudatan arthropod from the Silurian Herefordshire Lagerstätte, UK

  Royal Society Open Science · 2023-08-01 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  A new arthropod, Carimersa neptuni gen. et sp. nov., is described from the Silurian (Wenlock Series) Herefordshire Konservat-Lagerstätte, UK. The head bears pedunculate eyes and five pairs of appendages. Triflagellate antennae are followed by two pairs of uniramous limbs each with an endopod bearing a pronounced gnathobasic basipod. The posterior two pairs of head limbs and all trunk limbs bear an endopod, exopod and filamentous exite. The trunk consists of 10 appendage-bearing segments followed…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: RUI: AN INTEGRATIVE PALEONTOLOGICAL AND PALEOENVIRONMENTAL STUDY OF THE MIDDLE CAMBRIAN SPENCE, WHEELER, AND MARJUM SOFT-BODIED FAUNAS

  NSF · $52k · 2005–2008

• Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Biomechanical Evolution of Echinoderm Locomotion

  NSF · $17k · 2017–2021

• The exceptionally preserved Fezouata Biota from the Lower Ordovician of Morocco: a unique window into the Cambro-Ordovician faunal transition

  NSF · $204k · 2011–2018

Frequent coauthors

• Derek J. Siveter

  University of Oxford

  100 shared

• Mark D. Sutton

  Imperial College London

  67 shared

• David J. Siveter

  University of Leicester

  52 shared

• Ross P. Anderson

  University of Oxford

  50 shared

• Pincelli M. Hull

  47 shared

• Elizabeth G. Clark

  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

  47 shared

• James C. Lamsdell

  40 shared

• Sean McMahon

  36 shared

Similar researchers at Yale University

• Shun-ichiro Karatoh-81
• David Evansh-66
• John Wettlauferh-64