Vincent S. Williams
Department of Geology
University of Leicester
University Road
Leicester, LE1 7RH
UK

Vincent Williams is a vertebrate palaeontologist currently writing up his PhD at the University of Leicester. Having retired from a career in IT writing command and control systems he studied geology at the University of Leicester, gaining a MGeol in geology. His research involves the diet and jaw mechanics of ornithopod dinosaurs with a particular interest in how they developed the ability to chew. By getting up close and personal with the business end of a dinosaur and studying the microscopic pits and scratches on its teeth, it is possible to determine how a tooth in the lower jaw moved against a tooth in the upper jaw in three dimensional space, and therefore work out how it chewed and what was being eaten. The development of new tooth cleaning and replication techniques to access the microwear and circular statistical analysis methods to make sense of it was a prerequisite to this research, and involved much fun and merriment.