The peculiar land of Oz had nothing on the Gostling Evolution and Palaeobiology Lab!
This scientific twister carries us from 21st Century Southampton back 100s of millions of years to unrecognisable worlds with beasts stranger and more terrifying than flying monkeys.
We study some of the major events through the history of life; everything from the origin of mammals to how birds took to the air, and the dinosaurs that roamed Mesozoic Britain.
We use CT scanning technology to delve into the internal anatomy of fossils, and soon will be using engineering techniques to study dinosaur bite forces.
Dorothy wouldn’t know what hit her if she arrived in our lab…
Dr Neil J. Gostling is Associate Professor of Evolution and Palaeobiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton.
He did his PhD at the University of Reading looking at genes that pattern our nervous system, before moving to Bristol to study fossilised embryos of some of the earliest animals.
Recently Neil was in a BBC documentary and was lucky enough to meet and speak to Sir David Attenborough.
He lives in Southampton with his family, and, with his wife Claire, runs the Facebook group The Dinosaur on Your Window Sill.