Tom Kemp

University Lecturer and Curator of the Zoological Collections

Tutor in Biology and Tutor for Admissions, St John’s College

 

Research Interests

My broad field is vertebrate palaeobiology, and I am particularly interested in the mammal-like reptiles and early mammals, and what can be inferred about the structural, functional and ecological aspects of the origin of mammals from their basal amniote ancestry. I also use this case as a paradigm for thinking about major evolutionary transitions and the origin of new higher taxa in general: how long treks through morphospace, involving substantial changes in many characters over the geological time scale, can occur while the phenotype necessarily remains a highly complex, well-integrated entity. I am exploring the extent to which this evolvability versus integration paradox at the phenotypic level can be resolved by the correlated progression model of evolution, and am also concerned about the nature of the adaptive landscapes across which such enormously long-term trends can travel

Additional Information

As a Curator in the University Museum, I am interested in the collection and conservation of zoological and palaeontological specimens, and their use in research and teaching, and public exhibition

 

Contacts

Email: tom.kemp@zoo.ox.ac.uk
 
 

Selected Publications

  • Kemp, T.S. 2007. Acoustic transformer function of the postdentary bones and quadrate of a nonmammalian cynodont. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 27(2): 431-441.
  • Kemp, T.S. 2007. The concept of correlated progression as the basis of a model for the evolutionary origin of major new taxa. Proceedings of the Royal Society B274: 1667-1673. (doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.0288).
  • Kemp, T.S. 2006. The origin and early radiation of the therapsid mammal-like reptiles: a palaeobiological hypothesis. Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19: 1231-1247. (doi:10.1111/j.1420-9101.2005.01076.x)
  • Kemp, T.S. 2006. The origin of mammalian endothermy: a paradigm for the evolution of complex biological structure. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 147: 473-488. (doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2006.00226.x)
  • Kemp, T.S. 2005. The origin and evolution of mammals. Oxford University Press: Oxford. Pp331