Professor Neil Davies

Professor of Sedimentary Geology

Research

My work is focussed on the analysis of ancient sedimentary environments, with an emphasis on combining focussed fieldwork-based research with bigger picture analyses of secular changes to the geological record. My primary interests involve improving our understanding of the interconnections and feedback loops between life and sedimentation as recorded in the sedimentary record. In modern continental environments the vast majority of the land surface experiences geomorphological change which is in some way related to organisms and a growing wealth of biogeomorphological literature attests to the importance of biotic-abiotic interactions in constructing and refining landforms, sedimentation patterns and physical habitats in active sedimentary systems. My research aims to assess how such interactions manifest themselves in the Precambrian and Phanerozoic rock record by means of combining analyses of sedimentary facies, stratigraphy, and ichnology.

The co-evolution of non-marine life and landscapes

The Palaeozoic greening of the continents by land plants was one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth but although its biological and chemical effects are well-documented, the physical effects of introducing plants into alluvial systems (e.g., increasing bed roughness and bank stability, producing woody debris, etc.) have been less so. Active research in this area involves quantifying the sedimentary character and signatures of non-marine life in Precambrian through to Triassic strata worldwide, and assessing the influence that life had on sedimentation patterns and the creation of new sedimentary environments (which in turn provided novel habitats for evolving organisms).

Non-uniformitarian sedimentary environments

Throughout Earth history there have been intervals where sedimentary environments have existed which cannot be fully understood with reference to modern analogues. Detailed analysis of rocks from these intervals can help to isolate specific controls on sedimentation: ongoing work into Precambrian and early Palaeozoic river systems is aimed at recognising how such systems operated differently in unvegetated settings.

The difference between sediment, environment and sedimentary rock

All of these research strands are undertaken with the strict understanding that there is a fundamental difference between an observable sedimentary rock succession and the sediments and environments that formed them: a key understanding that is sometimes lost in sedimentological research. Original observation and collection of field data permits the opportunity to ask questions about how indicative of ancient environments sedimentary rocks really are: the answer to which question varies on a case-by-case basis. To the extent that sedimentary geology can sometimes be more counter-intuitive or intractable than is sometimes realised, I also have an interest in the application of sedimentary geological analyses within multidisciplinary projects, collaborating with a number of colleagues in the fields of palaeontology, geochronology, geomorphology, astrobiology and archaeology.

Publications

Key publications:

Recent publications can be found in the publications database here

Publications since 2020. *= undergraduate or PhD student supervised by me/ **= post-doc working with me at time of paper writing.

Davies, N.S., *Veenma, Y.P., *Craig, J.A., *Allport, H.A., **McMahon, W.J. and Shillito, A.P., 2025. Time, space and synoptic topography: how to read outcrops as a granular record of Earth history. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 556(1), pp.SP556-2024.

Davies, N.S. and Shillito, A.P., 2025. Bedding Surfaces: True Substrates and Earth's Historical Archive–An Introduction. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 556(1), pp.SP556-2025.

*Veenma, Y.P., Davies, N.S. and Shillito, A.P., 2025. The ichnological optimum: Enhanced trace fossil diversity in the Cambrian offshore driven by ecology, sedimentation, and outcrop. Journal of the Geological Society, pp.jgs2024-220.

*Craig, J.A., *Battle, R.J., *Veenma, Y.P., **McMahon, W.J., Slater, B.J., Shillito, A.P. and Davies, N.S., 2025. Thickness of the stratigraphic record of Britain: How the fidelity of geological and fossil data is unrelated to rock quantity. Earth-Science Reviews, p.105045.

*Veenma, Y.P. and Davies, N.S., 2025. Short-stasis signatures in Cambrian and Ordovician shallow-marine sandstones: implications for the ichnological record and time preserved at outcrop. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 556(1), pp.SP556-2024.

*Craig, J.A., Davies, N.S. and **McMahon, W.J., 2025. True substrates from a Mississippian wetland: windows into the biogeomorphology of Visean tetrapod habitats (Tyne Limestone Formation, UK). Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 556(1), pp.SP556-2024.

Wang, Z., Davies, N.S., Liu, A.G., Minter, N. and Rahman, I., 2024. Identifying signatures of the earliest benthic bulldozers in emergent subaerial conditions during the colonization of land by animals. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2024.1629.

Davies, N.S., **McMahon, W.J. and Berry, C.M., 2024. Earth's earliest forest: fossilized trees and vegetation-induced sedimentary structures from the Middle Devonian (Eifelian) Hangman Sandstone Formation, Somerset and Devon, SW England. Journal of the Geological Society, 181, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2023-204.

Corenblit, D., Piégay, H., Arrignon, F., González-Sargas, E., Bonis, A., Davies, N.S., Ebengo, D.M., Garófano-Gómez, V., Gurnell, A.M., Henry, A.L. and Hortobágyi, B., 2024. Interactions between vegetation and river morphodynamics. Part I: Research clarifications and challenges. Earth-Science Reviews, 253, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2024.104769.

**McMahon, W.J., *Herron, S.T., *Craig, J.A. and Davies, N.S., 2024. Mud retention in hydrologically closed basins promoted pre-vegetation meandering: evidence from the Neoproterozoic Diabaig Formation, Scotland. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 540, 75-101, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP540-2022-340.

Kleinhans, M.G., McMahon, W.J. and Davies, N.S., 2024. What even is a meandering river? A philosophy-enhanced synthesis of multilevel causes and systemic interactions contributing to river meandering. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 540, 43-74, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP540-2022-138.

Davies, N.S., Copley, A.C., **McMahon, W.J., Miocevich, S.R. and *Veenma, Y.P., 2023. A Geological Cornucopia: a transect of the Dent Fault Zone at Taythes Gill. In: Wrigley, R. (ed.) Geology of Cumbria Volume 2 Westmorland and Furness. Geologists’ Association Guide No. 77, 68-81, ISBN 978 1 9996757 52.

Davies, N.S., **McMahon, W.J., Shillito, A.P., *Veenma, Y.P. and *Craig, J.A., 2023. Ichnology of a Middle Devonian regression: Environment, terrestrialization and true substrate controls on trace fossils of the Hangman Sandstone Formation, SW England. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 625, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111671.

*Veenma, Y.P., Davies, N.S., Higgs, K.T. and **McMahon, W.J., 2023. Biogeomorphology of Ireland's oldest fossil forest: Plant-sediment and plant-animal interactions recorded in the Late Devonian Harrylock Formation, Co. Wexford. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 621, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111579.

Mitchell, R.L., Kenrick, P., Pressel, S., Duckett, J., Strullu‐Derrien, C., Davies, N.S., **McMahon, W.J. and Summerfield, R., 2023. Terrestrial surface stabilisation by modern analogues of the earliest land plants: A multi‐dimensional imaging study. Geobiology, 21, 454-473, https://doi.org/10.1111/gbi.12546.

Corenblit, D., Decaux, O., Delmotte, S., Toumazet, J.P., Arrignon, F., André, M.F., Darrozes, J., Davies, N.S., Julien, F., Otto, T. and Ramillien, G., 2023. Signatures of life detected in images of rocks using neural network analysis demonstrate new potential for searching for biosignatures on the surface of Mars. Astrobiology, 23, https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2022.0034.

Xue, J., Wang, J., Huang, P., Liu, L., Huang, T., Zhang, L., Wang, X., Shen, B., Wang, D., Liu, J. and Davies, N.S., 2023. The colonization of drylands by early vascular plants: Evidence from Early Devonian fossil soils and in situ plant traces from South China. Earth-Science Reviews, 237, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2022.104290.

**McMahon, W.J., Davies, N.S., Kleinhans, M.G. and Mitchell, R.L., 2023. Paleozoic vegetation increased fine sediment in fluvial and tidal channels: Evidence from secular changes to the mudrock content of ancient point bars. Geology, 51, 136-140, https://doi.org/10.1130/G50353.1.

Shillito, A.P. and Davies, N.S., 2022. Grain-Size Controls on the Siluro-Devonian Colonization of Non-Marine Substrates by Infaunal Invertebrates. PALAIOS, 37, 731-743, https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2021.069.

Shillito, A.P., Davies, N.S., **McMahon, W.J. and Slater, B.J., 2022. Deep Time Biogeomorphology 2: Animals as Ancient Ecosystem Engineers. PALAIOS, 37, 701-702, https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2022.053.

Spencer, C.J., Davies, N.S., Gernon, T.M., Wang, X., **McMahon, W.J., Morrell, T.R.I., Hincks, T., Pufahl, P.K., Brasier, A., Seraine, M. and Lu, G.M., 2022. Composition of continental crust altered by the emergence of land plants. Nature Geoscience, 15, 735-740, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00995-2.

Buatois, L.A., Davies, N.S., Gibling, M.R., Krapovickas, V., Labandeira, C.C., MacNaughton, R.B., Mángano, M.G., Minter, N.J. and Shillito, A.P., 2022. The invasion of the land in deep time: integrating Paleozoic records of paleobiology, ichnology, sedimentology, and geomorphology. Integrative and Comparative Biology, 62, 297-331, https://doi.org/10.1093/icb/icac059.

Davies, N.S., **McMahon, W.J., Shillito, A.P. and Slater, B.J., 2022. Deep time biogeomorphology: the co-evolution of life and sediments. PALAIOS, 37, 219-223, https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2022.029.

Davies, N.S., Gosse, J.C., Rouillard, A., Rybczynski, N., Meng, J., Reyes, A.V. and Kiguktak, J., 2022. Wood jams or beaver dams? Pliocene life, sediment and landscape interactions in the Canadian High Arctic. PALAIOS, 37, 330-347, https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2021.065.

Davies, N.S., Garwood, R.J., **McMahon, W.J., Schneider, J.W. and Shillito, A.P., 2022. The largest arthropod in Earth history: insights from newly discovered Arthropleura remains (Serpukhovian Stainmore Formation, Northumberland, England). Journal of the Geological Society, 179, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2021-115.

*Allport, H.A., Davies, N.S., Shillito, A.P., Mitchell, E.G., *Herron, S.T., 2022, Non-palimpsested crowded Skolithos ichnofabrics in a Carboniferous tidal rhythmite: disentangling ecological signatures from the spatiotemporal bias of outcrop. Sedimentology, 69, 1028-1050, https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12947.

Wellman, C.H., Berry, C.M., Davies, N.S., Lindemann, F.J., Marshall, J.E. and Wyatt, A., 2022. Low tropical diversity during the adaptive radiation of early land plants. Nature Plants, 8, 104-109, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-021-01067-w.

**McMahon, W.J., Davies, N.S., Liu, A.G. and Went, D.J., 2022. Enigma variations: characteristics and likely origin of the problematic surface texture Arumberia, as recognized from an exceptional bedding plane exposure and the global record. Geological Magazine, 159, 1-20, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756821000777.

*Tindal, B.H., Shillito, A.P., Davies, N.S., 2021, First report of fish trace fossils (Undichna) from the Middle Devonian Achanarras Limestone, Caithness Flagstone Group. Scottish Journal of Geology, 57, https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg2020-023.

Davies, N.S. and Shillito, A.P., 2021, True substrates: The exceptional resolution and unexceptional preservation of deep time snapshots on bedding surfaces. Sedimentology, 68, 3307-3356, https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12900.

Davies, N.S. and McMahon, W.J., 2021. Land plant evolution and global erosion rates. Chemical Geology. 567, 120128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120128.

Davies, N.S., Berry, C.M., Marshall, J.E.A., Wellman, C.H. and Lindemann, F.-J., 2021. The Devonian Landscape Factory: plant-sediment interactions in the Old Red Sandstone of Svalbard and the rise of vegetation as a biogeomorphic agent. Journal of the Geological Societ, 178, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-225.

*Shillito, A.P. and Davies, N.S., 2021. The Silurian inception of inland desert ecosystems: trace fossil evidence from the Mereenie Sandstone, Northern Territory, Australia. Journal of the Geological Society, 178, https://doi.org/10.1144/jgs2020-243.

Gosse, J.C., Stashin, S., Davies, N.S., 2021, Advances in the chronostratigraphy of the Beaufort Formation, Arctic Canada. Atlantic Geology, 57, 115-116, https://doi.org/10.4138/atlgeol.2021.006.

Davies, N.S., *Shillito, A.P. and Penn-Clarke, C.R., 2020. Cold feet: Trackways and burrows in ice-marginal strata of the end-Ordovician glaciation (Table Mountain Group, South Africa). Geology, 48, 1159-1163, https://doi.org/10.1130/G47808.1.

*Shillito, A.P. and Davies, N.S., 2020. The Tumblagooda Sandstone revisited: exceptionally abundant trace fossils and geological outcrop provide a window onto Palaeozoic littoral habitats before invertebrate terrestrialization. Geological Magazine, 157, 1939-1970, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0016756820000199.

*McMahon, W.J. and Davies, N.S., 2020. Physical and biological functioning in Proterozoic rivers: evidence from the archetypal pre-vegetation alluvium of the Torridon Group, NW Scotland. Scottish Journal of Geology, 56, 1-29, https://doi.org/10.1144/sjg2019-013.

Davies, N.S., *Shillito, A.P., Slater, B.J., Liu, A.G. and McMahon, W.J., 2020. Evolutionary synchrony of Earth’s biosphere and sedimentary-stratigraphic record. Earth-Science Reviews, 201, 102979, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102979. (30 p