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Dr Tom Stubbs

Photograph of Dr Tom Stubbs

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Lecturer in Biology
  • Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics
  • School of Life, Health & Chemical Sciences
  • thomas.stubbs

Web links

Professional biography

Dr Tom Stubbs is an evolutionary biologist interested in biodiversity and morphology. Tom first graduated from the University of Sheffield (BSc Environmental Science), before moving to the University of Bristol for postgraduate studies in evolution and palaeobiology (MSc, PhD). Since 2015, Tom held two postdoctoral research positions in Bristol and was promoted to a ​senior postdoctoral researcher in 2020. Tom then joined The Open University as a Lecturer in Biology in 2023.

 

Research interests

 

Word cloud for research by Dr Tom Stubbs

Tom’s research uses the fossil record and living animals to explore the uneven distribution of biodiversity across the Tree of Life and through geological time. Tom works on crocodiles, marine reptiles, dinosaurs, birds, lizards and snakes, mammals, fish, insects, and other invertebrates, to understand how diverse groups rise and fall, and how new evolutionary innovations emerge.

The key theme underlying all Tom’s research is the study of morphological evolution. Tom researches the evolution of morphological variety (disparity) over large geological timescales. This includes dynamics during evolutionary radiations, the evolution of new ecological innovations, and responses to extinction events.

Currently, Tom is exploring large-scale patterns of morphological change inclusively across all tetrapod animals (amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals), covering both living (~580 families) and extinct (>1000 families) forms in a universal framework. Tom has also recently initiated projects on the evolution of insect morphology.

 

Prospective research students

Tom can supervise postgraduate research projects linked to his interests as part of the new Interdisciplinary Life and Environmental Science Landscape Award (ILESLA) doctoral training programme. 

Tom's work is alligned with the following ILESLA research themes:

1. Rules of Life - evolutionary biology and integrative biology

2. Biodiversity and Sustainability - systematics

3. Transformative Technologies - computational biology

 

Potential PhD subject areas broadly include:

  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Palaeobiology & Palaeontology
  • Biodiversity
  • Computational Biology

Specific projects can include:

  • Morphology, anatomy and other adaptations
  • Comparative phylogenetic methods
  • Functional morphology and biomechanics
  • Extinction
  • Phylogenetics and systematics
  • Diversity through time

These subject areas and projects could feature any animal or plant group, although Tom is particularly interested in living and extinct vertebrate animals, and is starting new projects on insect evolution and biodiversity.

To apply for the new ILESLA PhD doctoral training programme at The Open University, click here.

 

Teaching interests

Current module teaching:

S295 The Biology of Survival

S317 Biological Science: From Genes to Species

SXB390 Science project module: biology

Publications

Early Permian and Permian–Triassic boundary interval conodonts from the Central Qiangtang metamorphic belt, northern Tibet, and their paleobiogeographic and paleoclimatic implications (2024-11-20)
Chen, Anfeng; Zhang, Yichun; Stubbs, Thomas L.; Zhang, Yang; Wu, Huiting; Li, Yalin; Ma, Xingduo; Wang, Qian and Shi, Xiaoying
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 654, Article 112449

New Cretaceous snakeflies highlight the morphological disparity of Mesoraphidiidae and its response to the Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution (2024-07)
Xiumei, Lu; Stubbs, Thomas L.; Zhuo, De; Xu, Chunpeng and Donoghue, Philip C. J.
Insect Systematics and Diversity, 8, Article 8(4)

Morphological innovation after mass extinction events in Permian and Early Triassic conodonts based on Polygnathacea (2024-05)
Xue, Chunling; Yuan, Dong-xun; Chen, Yanlong; Stubbs, Thomas; Zhao, Yueli and Zhifei, Zhang
Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 642, Article 112149

Locomotion and the early Mesozoic success of Archosauromorpha (2024-02)
Shipley, Amy E.; Elsler, Armin; Singh, Suresh A.; Stubbs, Thomas L. and Benton, Michael J.
Royal Society Open Science, 11(2)

Predatory synapsid ecomorphology signals growing dynamism of late Palaeozoic terrestrial ecosystems (2024)
Singh, Suresh A.; Elsler, Armin; Stubbs, Thomas L.; Rayfield, Emily J. and Benton, Michael J.
Communications Biology, 7, Article 201

Morphological innovation did not drive diversification in Mesozoic–Cenozoic brachiopods (2024)
Guo, Zhen; Benton, Michael J.; Stubbs, Thomas L. and Chen, Zhong-Qiang
Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8 (pp. 1948-1958)

Widespread convergence towards functional optimization in the lower jaws of crocodile-line archosaurs (2024)
Rawson, James R. G.; Deakin, William J.; Stubbs, Thomas L.; Smith, Thomas J.; Rayfield, Emily J. and Donoghue, Phillip C. J.
Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 291, Article 20240720

Contrasting macroevolutionary patterns in pelagic tetrapods across the Triassic–Jurassic transition (2024)
Laboury, Antoine; Stubbs, Thomas; Wolniewicz, Andrzej S; Liu, Jun; Scheyer, Torsten M; Jones, Marc E H and Fischer, Valentin
Evolution ((Early access))

High phenotypic plasticity at the dawn of the eosauropterygian radiation (2023-09-01)
Laboury, Antoine; Scheyer, Torsten M.; Klein, Nicole; Stubbs, Thomas L. and Fischer, Valentin
PeerJ, 11, Article e15776

Rapid neck elongation in Sauropterygia (Reptilia: Diapsida) revealed by a new basal pachypleurosaur from the Lower Triassic of China (2023-08-31)
Liu, Qi-Ling; Cheng, Long; Stubbs, Thomas L.; Moon, Benjamin C.; Benton, Michael J.; Yan, Chun-Bo and Tian, Li
BMC Ecology and Evolution, 23, Article 44