The Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research Group uses the fossil record to investigate the diversification and extinction of organisms in relation to the planet's long history of climatic and environmental change. The group has pioneered many research and educational initiatives, including the Bristol Dinosaur Project. A further key focus is on the origin of major animal groups in the Precambrian and Cambrian - to determine the interaction of palaeontological with molecular and developmental data. Several students and staff work on trace fossils, ancient tracks and burrows, as evidence of ancient behaviour. Others work on the history of diversity, the tree of life, mass extinctions, and the relationship between evolution and animal development. Imaginative new approaches to the study of fossil plants and marine microfossils also give unique information about palaeoclimates