Derek Briggs facts for kids

Derek Ernest Gilmor Briggs (born January 10, 1950) is an Irish scientist who studies fossils. He is known as a palaeontologist (someone who studies ancient life) and a taphonomist (someone who studies how living things become fossils). He works at Yale University in the United States.

Briggs is one of three palaeontologists, along with Harry Blackmore Whittington and Simon Conway Morris, who helped us understand the amazing fossils from the Burgess Shale much better. He holds an important position at Yale University as the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Geology and Geophysics. He is also a Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology at Yale's Peabody Museum of Natural History and used to be its director.

Becoming a Fossil Expert

Briggs studied Geology at Trinity College Dublin in Ireland. He earned his first degree in 1972. After that, he went to the University of Cambridge in England. There, he worked with a famous British palaeontologist named Harry Blackmore Whittington.

In 1976, Briggs earned his PhD (a high-level university degree). His research was about the "Arthropods from the Burgess Shale, Middle Cambrian, Canada." Arthropods are a group of animals with jointed legs, like insects and crabs.

Discovering Ancient Life

While at the University of Cambridge, Briggs worked on the incredible fossils from the Burgess Shale. This site is in British Columbia, Canada, and is famous for its exceptionally well-preserved fossils. He worked alongside another student, Simon Conway Morris, both guided by Harry Whittington.

The Burgess Shale project became one of the most important studies in palaeontology in the late 1900s. It helped scientists learn a lot about early life on Earth.

Briggs's main research focuses on taphonomy, which is the study of how living things decay and become fossils. He looks at special fossil sites called Konservat-Lagerstätten. These places have fossils that are so well-preserved that they even show soft body parts, not just bones or shells.

His work includes doing experiments to see what makes things decay and turn into fossils. He also studies how minerals can replace soft tissues and how organic materials are preserved. He does field work too, visiting many fossil sites around the world.

From 2008 to 2014, Derek Briggs was the Director of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. In 2011, he became the G. Evelyn Hutchinson Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Yale.

Awards and Special Recognitions

Derek Briggs has received many awards for his important work:

• 1999 – He became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom.
• 2000 – He won the Premio Capo d'Orlando, an Italian prize for palaeontology.
• 2000 – He was awarded the Lyell Medal from the Geological Society of London. This medal is given for excellent research in geology.
• 2001 – He received the Boyle Medal from the Royal Dublin Society.
• 2002–2004 – He served as President of the Palaeontological Association.
• 2003 – He became an Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Academy.
• 2006–2008 – He served as President of the Paleontological Society.
• 2008 – He received the Humboldt Research Award.
• 2015 – He was awarded the Paleontological Society Medal.
• 2019 – He became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
• 2019 – He received the Lapworth Medal from the Palaeontological Association.

When he was nominated for the Royal Society, it was noted that Professor Briggs made amazing discoveries of exceptionally preserved fossils. His research helped change how palaeontology is studied, focusing more on these special fossils that show us so much about past life. His work on arthropods from the Burgess Shale helped us understand the Cambrian explosion. This was a time when many new types of animals appeared on Earth. He showed that the variety of body shapes in living arthropods today is similar to what existed in the Cambrian period. This means that the basic rules for how bodies form were already in place very early in evolution.

He also found the first evidence of soft tissues from conodonts. This discovery helped scientists figure out that conodonts were actually the earliest known vertebrates (animals with backbones). More recently, he has developed new ways to study how soft parts of animals become fossils. His chemical and mineral studies have shown how soft tissues can be perfectly copied by minerals, even down to the cell level. This process is sometimes called the "Medusa effect."