Experience

Research summary

Palaeobiologist examining the macroecological and macroevolutionary history of reef-building organisms by integrating interdisciplinary tools and sources of information, such as ecological modelling, Earth system modelling, and fossil occurrence datasets. An additional significant theme of research has been evaluating the influence of data incompleteness on perceptions of the geological past. Currently investigating the drivers of marine biodiversity hotspots throughout the Cenozoic and reconstructing their evolutionary history.

Macroecology and biodiversity | Fossil record bias | Corals and reef ecosystems | Palaeoclimate | R programming

Education

PhD in Palaeobiology (2016–2020)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Research advisors: Prof. Philip D. Mannion & Prof. Peter A. Allison
Thesis title: On the detectability of latitudinal biodiversity gradients in deep time

MPhysGeog in Physical Geography (2011–2015)
University of Hull, Hull, UK
Research advisor: Prof. David P.G. Bond
Thesis title: The End-Triassic mass extinction. An investigation of the British Geological Record: testing for the role of volcanism and ocean anoxia

Chartered Management Institute (Level 5) in Management and Leadership (2012–2015)
Leeds University Officer Training Corps, Leeds, UK

Employment

NERC Independent Research Fellow (2024–current)
Department of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, UK

Juan de la Cierva Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2023–2024)
Mapas Lab, Centro de Investigación Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

European Research Council Postdoctoral Research Assistant (2021–2022)
Mapas Lab, Centro de Investigación Mariña, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Graduate Teaching Assistant (2016–2021)
Department of Earth Science and Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

Student Hall’s Warden (2016–2021)
Woodward Buildings, Imperial College London, London, UK

British Army Officer Cadet (2012–2015)
Leeds University Officer Training Corps, Leeds, UK

Sales Assistant (2010–2012)
Republic Ltd, Grimsby and Hull, UK

Baker (2008–2010)
Muffin Break, Grimsby, UK

Research visits

University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria (April–June, 2023)
Visiting researcher in the Conservation Palaeobiology and Historical Ecology Lab (PI: Prof. Martin Zuschin)

Publications

Peer-reviewed publications

  1. Lewis A. Jones and Mathew Domeier (2024). A Phanerozoic gridded dataset for palaeogeographic reconstructions. Scientific Data 11 (710), 1–7. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-024-03468-w.

  2. Alfio A. Chiarenza, Juan L. Cantalapiedra, Lewis A. Jones, Sara Gamboa, Sofía Galván, Alexander Farnsworth, Paul J. Valdes, Graciela Sotelo, and Sara Varela (2024). Early Jurassic origin of avian endothermy and thermophysiological diversity in dinosaurs. Current Biology 34, 1–11. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.04.051.

  3. Kilian Eichenseer and Lewis A. Jones (2024). Bayesian multi-proxy reconstruction of early Eocene latitudinal temperature gradients. Climate of the Past 20, 349–362. DOI: 10.5194/cp-20-349-2024.

  4. Lucas Buffan, Lewis A. Jones, Mathew Domeier, Christopher R. Scotese, Sabin Zahirovic and Sara Varela (2023). Mind the Uncertainty: Global Plate Model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 (12), 3007–3019. DOI:10.1111/2041-210X.14204.

  5. William Gearty and Lewis A. Jones (2023). rphylopic: An R package for fetching, transforming, and visualising PhyloPic silhouettes. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 (11), 2700–2708. DOI:10.1111/2041-210X.14221.

  6. Lewis A. Jones, William Gearty, Bethany J. Allen, Kilian Eichenseer, Christopher D. Dean, Sofía Galván, Miranta Kouvari, Pedro L. Godoy, Cecily Nicholl, Lucas Buffan, Erin M. Dillon, Joseph T. Flannery-Sutherland and A. Alessandro Chiarenza (2023). palaeoverse: A community-driven R package to support palaeobiological analysis. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14 (9), 2205–2215. DOI:10.1111/2041-210X.14099.

  7. Lewis A. Jones, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Fran Bragg, Daniel J. Lunt (2022). Climatic and tectonic drivers shaped the tropical distribution of coral reefs. Nature Communications 13 (3120), 1–10. DOI:10.1038/s41467-022-30793-8.

  8. Lewis A. Jones and Kilian Eichenseer (2022). Uneven spatial sampling distorts reconstructions of Phanerozoic seawater temperature. Geology 50 (2), 238–242. DOI:10.1130/G49132.1.

  9. Lewis A. Jones, Christopher D. Dean, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Peter A. Allison (2021). Spatial sampling heterogeneity limits the detectability of deep time latitudinal biodiversity gradients. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 288 (1945), 20202762. DOI:10.1098/rspb.2020.2762.

  10. Lewis A. Jones, Philip D. Mannion, Alexander Farnsworth, Paul Valdes, Sarah-Jane Kelland, and Peter A. Allison (2019). Coupling of palaeontological and neontological reef coral data improves forecasts of biodiversity responses under global climatic change. Royal Society Open Science 6 (4), 182111. DOI:10.1098/rsos.182111.

  11. Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza, Philip D. Mannion, Daniel Lunt, Alexander Farnsworth, Lewis A. Jones, Sarah-Jane Kelland, and Peter A. Allison (2019). Ecological niche modelling does not support climatically-driven dinosaur diversity decline before the Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction. Nature Communications 10 (1091), 1–14. DOI:10.1038/s41467-019-08997-2.

Theses

  1. Lewis A. Jones (2020). On the detectability of latitudinal biodiversity gradients in deep time. PhD Thesis. Imperial College London. Supervisors: Prof. Philip D. Mannion and Prof. Peter A. Allison. DOI:10.25560/100239.

  2. Lewis A. Jones (2015). The end-Triassic mass extinction. An investigation of the British geological record: testing for the role of volcanism and ocean anoxia. Master Thesis. Supervisor: Prof. David Bond.

Other works

  1. Lewis A. Jones (2023). Palaeontology’s greatest ever graphs: The absence of evidence: spatial sampling bias in the fossil record. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 114.

  2. Lewis A. Jones (2022). Book review: Timefulness: How thinking like a geologist can help save the world. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 110.

  3. Michael Stevens, Yiqiao Chen, Alex Stringer, Caitlin Clemmow, and Lewis A. Jones (2020). Key factors driving obesity in the UK. GISRUK 2020.

  4. Lewis A. Jones (2020). Meeting report: 13th International Symposium of Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera. The Palaeontological Association Newsletter 102.

Published software

  1. palaeoverse: A community-driven R package to support data preparation and exploration for palaeobiological analyses.
    CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/palaeoverse/
    GitHub: https://github.com/palaeoverse/palaeoverse

  2. rphylopic: An R package for fetching, transforming, and visualising PhyloPic silhouettes.
    CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rphylopic/
    GitHub: https://github.com/palaeoverse/rphylopic

  3. sepkoski: A data R package of Sepkoski’s Fossil Marine Animal Genera Compendium (Sepkoski, 2002). CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/sepkoski/
    GitHub: https://github.com/lewisajones/sepkoski

  4. rmacrostrat: An R package to fetch geologic data from the Macrostrat database.
    CRAN: https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/rmacrostrat/
    GitHub: https://github.com/palaeoverse/rmacrostrat

Academic awards and grants

Addressing the origins of marine invertebrate diversity in computer simulations (INDICiOS) (2024)
Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento (Knowledge Generation Projects), Spain
Role: co-applicant, value: 345,000 EUR

Elucidating diversity dynamics in marine tropical hotspots (2024)
Natural Environment Research Council Independent Research Fellowship, UK
Role: applicant, value: 874,978 GBP

Reconstructing the diversity dynamics and drivers of Cenozoic marine biodiversity hotspots (2024)
Norman Newell grant from the Paleontological Society, USA
Role: applicant, value: 5000 USD

rmacrostrat R package development workshop (2024)
Scientific Exchange grant from the Swiss National Science Fund, Switzerland
Role: co-applicant, value: 5800 CHF

MURKY: Mesophotic and turbid reefs as key ecosystems for the future? (2023)
Research workshop grant from the Paleosynthesis project, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Germany
Role: co-applicant, value: 10,000 EUR

R for Palaeobiologists: Workshop and Hackathon (2023)
Meeting support grant from The Paleontological Society, USA
Role: co-applicant, value: 1000 USD

R for Palaeobiologists: Workshop and Hackathon (2022)
Grant-in-Aid from The Palaeontological Association, UK
Role: applicant, value: 2000 GBP

Juan de la Cierva Fellowship (2022)
Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Spain
Role: applicant, value: 64,800 EUR

Doctoral Summer School for Advanced Spatial Modelling - Hackathon award (2019)
Awarded for best hackathon project, Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London
Value: 250 GBP

13th International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera - Travel grant (2019)
Travel grant from The Palaeontological Association, UK
Role: applicant, value: 220 EUR

President’s PhD Scholarship (2016)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Role: applicant, value: 70,000 GBP

Roger Ward thesis award (2015)
Awarded for best Master’s thesis, University of Hull, Hull, UK
Value: 50 GBP

Invited presentations

Computational Palaeobiology Mini-Symposium (2024)
Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering, ETH Zürich, Basel, Switzerland
Oral: Mind the uncertainty: Global Plate Model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies

Methods in Ecology and Evolution: Live! (2023)
British Ecological Society, Online workshop
Oral: Introduction to rphylopic: An R package for fetching, transforming, and visualising PhyloPic silhouettes

Department of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Austria (2023)
Oral: Into the palaeoverse: a community-driven R package

PalaeoSIG (British Ecological Society): Masterclass in R (2022)
Oral: Into the palaeoverse: a community-driven R package

Getech PLC (2018)
Oral: Ecological modelling in Geosciences

Selected conference presentations

12th North American Paleontological Convention (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 2024)
Oral: Mind the uncertainty: Global Plate Model choice impacts deep-time palaeobiological studies
Poster: palaeoverse: A community-driven R package to support palaeobiological analyses
Poster: rmacrostrat: An R package for retrieving data from the Macrostrat geological database

14th International Fossil Coral and Reef Society symposium (Chęciny, Poland, 2023)
Oral: Inverse latitudinal diversity gradients in Last Interglacial coral reef communities

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (Cork, Ireland, 2022)
Poster: Niche characterisation is biased by limited and heterogeneous spatial sampling

Simposio de Paleontologia del noroeste peninsular (A Coruña, Spain, 2022)
Poster: palaeoverse: a community-driven R package

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (Valencia, Spain, 2019)
Oral: Poor spatial sampling coverage obscures our understanding of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in deep time
Poster: Uneven spatial sampling in Phanerozoic palaeoclimate curves

13th International Symposium on Fossil Cnidaria and Porifera (Modena, Italy, 2019)
Oral: The evolution of the latitudinal biodiversity gradient in zooxanthellate corals

The past is a foreign country: how much can the fossil record actually inform conservation? (London, UK, 2019)
Poster: Looking through the palaeontological window: reducing geographical and environmental bias in forecasting biodiversity responses

Crossing the Palaeontological–Ecological Gap (Leeds, UK, 2018)
Oral: Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence: quantifying reef coral range shifts under global climatic change

British Ecological Society - Macroecology (St. Andrews, UK, 2018)
Oral: Anthropogenic climate change and transitional distribution ranges of reef corals: insights from the last Pleistocene interglacial

The Palaeontological Association: Progressive Palaeontology (Manchester, UK, 2018)
Oral: Coupling palaeontological and neontological data: transitional distribution ranges of reef corals under global climatic change

The Palaeontological Association: Annual Meeting (London, UK, 2017)
Poster: Ecological niche modelling in deep time: constraining the transitional distribution ranges of reef corals

European Coral Reef Symposium (Oxford, UK, 2017)
Poster: Anthropogenic climate change and transitional distribution ranges of reef corals: insights from the last Pleistocene interglacial

The Palaeontological Association: Progressive Palaeontology (Leicester, UK, 2017)
Poster: PalaeoENM: Ecological Controls on Triassic/Jurassic Coral Reefs

Fieldwork experience

El Qoseir, Egypt (2023)
Modern and fossil (Last Interglacial) coral reef data collection via line-intercept transects

León, Spain (2022)
Logging and bulk sampling of Devonian sequences

Colorado and New Mexico, USA (2016)
Logging, sampling, and fossil prospecting across the Cenomanian/Turonian boundary

Somerset, Lyme Regis, and Newark, UK (2015)
Logging, sampling, and geochemical analysis across the Triassic/Jurassic boundary

Koh Rong, Cambodia (2012)
Marine biological surveys as part of Koh Rong’s (Cambodia) coral reef monitoring project

Professional development

Macroevolution and Phylogenies (2022)
Transmitting Science, Online

Introduction to GEN3SIS (2022)
Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

Towards more equitable marine research (2021)
Centro de Investigación Mariña (led by Transmitting Science), Universidade de Vigo, Spain

Data manipulation and Statistical Analysis in Palaeoecology (2021)
Palaeoecology Group, British Ecological Society, Online

Doctoral Summer School for Advanced Spatial Modelling (2019)
The Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, London, UK

Species distribution modelling: fundamentals and the future workshop (2019)
University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Advanced ecological niche modelling (2018)
University of Porto, Porto, Portugal

Introduction to ecological niche modelling (2017)
Transmitting Science, Barcelona, Spain

Introduction to coral identification (2017)
European Coral Reef Symposium, Oxford, UK

Introduction to larval dispersal modelling (2017)
European Coral Reef Symposium, Oxford, UK

Student supervision

Theres Koch (2024)
University of Vienna, Austria
Master’s project: Checklist of scleractinian species in Mangrove Bay, El Qoseir, Egypt

Miranta Kouvari (2019–2023)
University College London, London, UK
Master’s project: The latitudinal biodiversity gradient of South American eutherians

Lucas Buffan (2021–2022)
University of Vigo, Vigo, Spain
Master’s project: Spatial discrepancies in palaeogeographic reconstructions

Teaching and pastoral care

R for Paleobiologists: Getting Started with the palaeoverse R Package (2024)
12th North American Paleontological Convention, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Organised and ran a workshop on using R in Palaeobiology

Lab Assistant (2024)
Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

  • Computational Tools in Biology

R for Palaeobiologists: Workshop and Hackathon (2023)
University College London, UK
Organised and ran a workshop on using R in Palaeobiology

Graduate Teaching Assistant (2016–2021)
Imperial College London, London, UK

  • Palaeobiology I
  • Palaeobiology II
  • Dorset (UK) geology field course
  • Almería (Spain) geology field course

Student Hall’s Warden (2016–2021)
Woodward Buildings, Imperial College London, London, UK

Professional service and outreach

Recent Advances in Computational Paleobiology symposium (Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, 2024)
Co-organised and ran a symposium at the 12th North American Paleontological Convention

Palaeoverse Lecture Series (2024–Current)
Monthly lecture series on recent advances in computational tools and methods in palaeobiology https://www.youtube.com/@ThePalaeoverse/

14th International Fossil Coral and Reef Society symposium (Chęciny, Poland, 2023)
Session chair: Fossil coral reefs: research methods

IFCRS Internet Officer (2023–current)
Committee member of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (IFCRS)

IFCRS Early Career Researcher Representative (2021–2023)
Committee member of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (IFCRS)

IFCRS Lecture Series (2022)
International Fossil Coral and Reef Society, Online
Co-organised and ran a lecture series on fossil corals and reefs

IFCRS Early Career Researcher Symposium (2021)
International Fossil Coral and Reef Society, Online
Co-organised and ran an early career researcher meeting on fossil corals and reefs

Fossil Fact or Fiction stall (2019)
Einstein’s Garden, Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons, Wales
Co-ran a stall on fossil record bias over the course of the festival

Ecological niche modelling workshop (2018)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Co-organised and ran a workshop on ecological niche modelling

Palaeontological Association meeting (2017)
Imperial College London, London, UK
Co-organised and ran the annual meeting of the Palaeontological Association

Peer-review experience

Ecological Monographs Global Ecology and Biogeography
Journal of Biogeography
Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Nature Communications
Science Advances
Scientific Reports
Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Skills

R programming
Advanced proficiency in data analysis, data visualization, writing functions and developing packages

Geocomputation
Proficient in spatial analysis and the use of R spatial packages (e.g. raster, terra, sf, sp)

Languages
Spanish (CEFR B1)
Mandarin Chinese (HSK1)

SCUBA diver
BSAC-accredited Ocean and Sports Diver

Workplace qualifications
Emergency first-aid at work & automated external defibrillator
Outdoors emergency first-aid
Mental health first-aid
Fire safety and warden
Active-bystander

Driving
Full EU driving license

Memberships

Member of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (2018–present)
Member of the Palaeontological Association (2017–present)
Member of the Paleontological Society (2023–present)
Member of the Conservation Paleobiology Network (2019–present)
Member of the British Ecological Society (2017–present)