Research interests:

Evolution of terrestrial communities, colonization of ecospace, and evolution of animal behaviour.

The notion that behaviour can be fossilized may seem implausible - but trace fossils represent just that - direct evidence for the life activities of extinct animals. This definition incorporates a wide range of biogenic structures, from the more obvious trackways, trails, and burrows, to bite marks and faeces. The study of trace fossils, or ichnology, is an interdisciplinary research area, crossing between palaeontology, sedimentology, and behavioural ecology.

Trace fossils have wide-ranging utility, perhaps the most well-documented being in the fine-scale discrimination of depositional settings through the identification of recurrent associations of trace fossils, or ichnofacies. Trace fossils are generally preserved in situ, often in settings devoid of body fossils, and so they may also be used to extend the known stratigraphic, geographic and palaeoenvironmental distribution of animals, as well as reconstructing palaeocommunities.

Trace fossils, in their very essence represent animal behaviour, but also incorporate the key aspect of time, providing an enviable resource for examining the evolution of animal behaviour and appearance of key behavioural innovations.

Ph.D. project:

The Lower Permian Robledo Mountains Formation of southern New Mexico, USA contains one of the most important nonmarine ichnofaunas in the world, comprising trackways and trails of both vertebrates and invertebrates, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammal-like reptiles, insects, myriapods, chelicerates, and vermiform animals. Abundant, well-preserved material enables the minor behavioural and preservational variation in different types of trace fossils to be established, which enables rationalization of their nomenclature, and subsequent evaluation of previous schemes of their palaeoenvironmental and biostratigraphic distribution.

Trace fossil localities of comparable age occur across New Mexico along a transect of different depositional settings. The Robledo Mountains Formation in southern New Mexico represents a tidal flat settings, whilst the Abo Formation in the Fra Cristobal and Caballo Mountains in central New Mexico represent floodplain settings, and the Sangre de Cristo Formation in northern New Mexico represents an alluvial fan complex. This provides a unique opportunity to reconstruct the distribution of trace fossils and their producers across a range of nonmarine settings. These analyses will be extended in space by comparisons with other Permian ichnofaunas from southwest USA, Germany, and South Africa, and also in time with other well-documented Palaeozoic nonmarine ichnofaunas. This will enable evaluation of the validity of previously proposed nonmarine ichnofacies models, and the reconstruction of the evolution of terrestrial communities and colonization of ecospace. The behavioural implications of locomotory and foraging traces will also be examined.

Publications:

Feel free to contact me to request reprints.

2007:

Minter, N.J. 2007. Ichnology of the Nonmarine Permian: Ichnotaxonomy, Palaeoenvironments and Palaeoethology of the Southwest USA. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Bristol, 408 pp.

Minter, N.J., Braddy, S.J., and Davis, R.B. 2007. Between a rock and a hard place: arthropod trackways and ichnotaxonomy. Lethaia, 40, 365-375. doi: 10.1111/j.1502-3931.2007.00035.x

Davis, R.B., Minter, N.J., and Braddy, S.J. 2007. The neoichnology of terrestrial arthropods. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 255, 284-307. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.07.013

Minter, N.J., Braddy, S.J., and Voigt, S. 2007. Klein aber fein - Die Arthropodenfährten aus dem Permokarbon des Saar-Nahe-Beckens. In Schindler, T. and Heidtke, U.H.C. (eds.). Kohlesümpfe, Seen und Halbwüsten - Dokumente einer rund 300 Millionen Jahre alten Lebewelt zwischen Saarbrücken und Mainz. Pollichia Sonderveröffentlichung, 10, 198-205.

Minter, N.J., Krainer, K., Lucas, S.G., Braddy, S.J., and Hunt, A.P. 2007. Palaeoecology of an Early Permian playa lake trace fossil assemblage from Castle Peak, Texas, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 246, 390-423. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2006.10.009

2006:

Benton, M.J., Minter, N.J., and Posmosanu, E. 2006. Dwarfing in ornithopod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of Romania. 79-87. In Csiki, Z. (ed.). Mesozoic and Cenozoic Vertebrates and Paleoenvironments: tributes to the career of Professor Dan Grigorescu. Bucharest, University of Bucharest.

Minter, N.J., Buatois, L.A., Lucas, S.G., Braddy, S.J., and Smith, J.A. 2006. Spiral-shaped graphoglyptids from an Early Permian intertidal flat. Geology, 34, 1057-1060. doi:10.1130/G22722A.1

Minter, N.J., and Braddy, S.J. 2006. The fish and amphibian swimming traces Undichna and Lunichnium, with examples from the Lower Permian of New Mexico, USA. Palaeontology, 49, 1123-1142. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00588.x

Minter, N.J., and Braddy, S.J. 2006. Walking and jumping with Palaeozoic apterygote insects. Palaeontology, 49, 827-835. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4983.2006.00571.x

2005:

Lucas, S.G., Minter, N.J., Spielmann, J.A., Smith, J.A., and Braddy, S.J., 2005. Early Permian ichnofossils from the northern Caballo Mountains, Sierra County, New Mexico. In Lucas, S.G., Zeigler, K.E. and Spielmann, J.A. (eds.). The Permian of central New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 31, 151-162.

Lucas, S.G., Minter, N.J., Spielmann, J.A., Hunt, A.P., and Braddy, S.J., 2005. Early Permian ichnofossil assemblage from the Fra Cristobal Mountains, southern New Mexico. In Lucas, S.G., Zeigler, K.E. and Spielmann, J.A. (eds.). The Permian of central New Mexico. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 31, 140-150.

Talk abstracts:

Minter, N.J., Buatois, L.A., Lucas, S.G., Braddy, S.J. and Smith, J.A. 2006. Spiral-shaped graphoglyptids from an Early Permian intertidal flat. 50th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programme, 30. University of Sheffield.

Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2006. Arthropod trackways and ichnotaxonomy. Abstract book: Workshop on Ichnotaxonomy - III, Prague and Moravia, Czech Republic, 27. Institute of Geology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Prague.

Minter, N.J. 2005. The Robledo Mountains ichnofauna: regional and global context. In Lucas, S.G. and Zeigler, K.E. (eds.). The nonmarine Permian. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 30, 217.

Minter, N.J. 2005. Walking and jumping with Palaeozoic insects. Progressive Palaeontology Programme and Abstracts, 6. University of Leicester.

Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2004. Scratches in the rock: what can they tell us? Progressive Palaeontology Programme and Abstracts, 22. Cardiff University.

Poster abstracts:

Minter, N.J., Krainer, K., Lucas, S.G., Braddy, S.J. and Hunt, A.P. 2006. Palaeoecology of an Early Permian playa lake trace fossils assemblage from Castle Peak, Texas, USA. 50th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programme, 66. University of Sheffield.

Davis, R.B., Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2006. The neoichnology of terrestrial arthropods. 50th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programme, 51. University of Sheffield.

Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2005. Walking and jumping with apterygote insects. 49th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programme, 51-52. Oxford University.

Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2005. Walking and jumping with Paleozoic apterygote insects. In Lucas, S.G. and Zeigler, K.E. (eds.). The nonmarine Permian. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 30, 218.

Minter, N.J. and Braddy, S.J. 2004. Unravelling fish swimming trails: a review of the ichnogenus Undichna. 48th Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting, Abstracts with Programme, 165. University of Lille.

Lerner, A.J., Lucas, S.G., Hunt, A.P. and Minter, N.J. 2004. Lower Permian tetrapod ichnofauna from the Abo Formation, Fra Cristobal Mountains, Sierra County, New Mexico. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 24, 82A.

Book reviews:

Minter, N.J. 2004. Review: Mángano et al. 2002. Ichnology of a Pennsylvanian equatorial tidal flat - The Stull Shale Member at Waverly, eastern Kansas. Palaeontological Association Newsletter, 55, 86-89.

Links:

Department of Earth Sciences home page: http://www.gly.bris.ac.uk
Research group home page:  http://palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk
New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science: http://www.nmfossils.org
Press release from the Geological Sociey of America on intertidal graphoglyptids: http://www.geosociety.org/news/pr/06-54.htm
Report on "The footfalls and bellyflops of Permian insects" from the Hairy Museum of Natural History: http://www.hmnh.org/archives/category/paleozoic/permian/