Professor Alex Liu
- Professor of Palaeobiology
- Christine McKie Official Fellow in Natural Sciences, Girton College
Contact
Connect
About
- 2003-2007: MESc undergraduate degree in Earth Sciences, St. Peter's College, University of Oxford
- 2007-2011: DPhil in Ediacaran Palaeobiology, Exeter College, University of Oxford
- 2011-2014: Henslow Junior Research Fellow, Girton College, University of Cambridge
- 2014-2016: NERC Independent Research Fellow, University of Bristol
- 2016-2021: University Lecturer, University of Cambridge
- 2021-2025: Associate Professor, University of Cambridge
- 2025 - : Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Cambridge
- Voting member of the Ediacaran Subcommission on Stratigraphy
- Council Member, Cambridge Philosophical Society
- Member of the UK Antarctic Place-names Committee
- Christine McKie Official Fellow in Natural Sciences, Girton College
Research
I am a palaeobiologist whose research focuses on the fossil record of the earliest animals. The research conducted by my group currently includes investigation of: the late Ediacaran fossil record (spanning the geological interval ~580 to 539 million years ago when the earliest recognisable animals diversified throughout the global oceans); the sedimentary record of glacial conditions through time; Ediacaran-Cambrian palaeogeography; and the preservation of soft tissues in the rock record. We combine biological, ecological, sedimentological and analytical approaches to resolve the early evolutionary history of animals, and the interplay between biological evolution and major environmental change.
Teaching and supervision
Undergraduate teaching
- Part 1B ESA Carbonate and chemical sediments.
- Part II, Ancient Life and Environments
- Part III, Records of Major Environmental Change
- Dorset field trip co-ordinator.
- Supervisions in sedimentology, palaeobiology and climate.
PhD students
I am happy to discuss Masters or PhD projects with potential future applicants, please get in touch by email.
Current students
- Philip Vixseboxse (2021 - Present): Experimental approaches to the preservation of Ediacaran macrofossils.
- Catherine Boddy (2021 - Present): Sedimentology and depositional environments of late Ediacaran shallow marine successions.
- Lara Uttinger (2024 - Present): Palaeogeographic controls on the Cambrian Explosion.
- Novo Ukiri (2024 - present): The Ediacaran evolution of bilaterians.
Previous students
- Dr Katie Delahooke (2020 - 2025, University of Cambridge): Eco-evolutionary dynamics of early animal ecosystems.
- Dr Ben Tindal (2018 - 2022, University of Cambridge): Geological constraints on glaciation through Earth history. Now works for Natural England.
- Dr Frankie Dunn (2015 - 2019, University of Bristol): Growth and morphogenesis in the Ediacaran macrobiota. Now a Senior Researcher at the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History.
- Elkan Utoni (2023 - 2025, University of Namibia): Palaeoecology of Ediacaran matground assemblages.
- Iris Powell (2023 - 2024): The palaeogeographic distribution of the Cambrian explosion.
- Buck Blake (2023 - 2024): Taxonomy of Ediacaran tubular fossils from Namibia.
- Erin Leahy (2019 - 2020): Super-traits in Ediacaran palaeocommunities (co-supervised with Dr Emily Mitchell)
- Anna McGairy (2019 - 2020): A new Ediacaran frond from the Bonavista Peninsula, Newfoundland (co-supervised with Dr Charlotte Kenchington)
- Catherine Boddy (2019 - 2020): The palaeogeographic distribution of the Ediacaran macrobiota
- Alavya Dhungana (2018-2019): Taphonomy and palaeoecology of discoidal Ediacaran fossils from Ferryland, Newfoundland