

Research Expertise and Interest
paleontology
Research Description
Charles Marshall is broadly interested in how paleontology can inform our understanding of the history of life, and the processes that control it. His research often takes advantage of data from genomics, molecular phylogenies, developmental biology, and functional studies. Much of his work also involves the development of new tools or ways of knowing. Current projects in his group center on: understanding how biodiversity changes on geologic timescales, and on how molecular phylogenetic data and the fossil record might be used synergistically to understand the processes responsible for changes in diversity; the calibration of molecular clocks; and, the import of new genomic data on our understanding of the Cambrian explosion.