School of Earth and Environment

Nicholas Higgs Nicholas Higgs

Postgraduate Student

Telephone number: +44(0) 113 34 31377
Email address: eendh@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 7.130

Biography

Academic History

Oct 2008 to Jul 2012: Postgraduate Research Student, University of Leeds

Jun 2007 to Aug 2007: Research Assistant, Dr. G. Paterson, Natural History Museum, London

Oct 2004 to Jun 2008: MSci (Hons), Marine Biology, University of Southampton

Memberships/Fellowships

Member of the Marine Biological Association of the UK

Research Interests

Current Research

My research is broadly aimed at understanding the ecology of the deep-sea environment. More specifically, my PhD research lies at the interface of biology and palaeontology, investigating how biological processes affect the fossilisation of organic remains in the marine realm, especially large vertebrate carcasses such as whales and dolphins.

Osedax bone-worms

Osedaxworms are a recently discovered group of annelids that subsist entirely on the bones of dead animals in the deep-sea. They have unusual fleshy root tissues that the use to bore into and degrade the bones, seemingly for nutritional purposes. I have been using state-of-the-art micro CT scanning to investigate how these worms bore into and destroy bones. I have also found traces of these worms in fossil whale bones, helping to unravel the history of this strange group of animals.

Experimental taphonomy

I have set up a fully replicated marine experiment with collaborators at the Scottish Association of Marine Science to quantify taphonomic processes in the marine environment. This project is funded by a NERC grant for dive support from the National Facility for Scientific Diving.

Live video observatory

I have worked with a team led by Dr. Adrian Glover (Natural History Museum, London) and Dr. Thomas Dahlgren (Uni Research, Norway) to set up a live underwater observatory for monitoring the marine environment in real time. We use this system to record and observe how cetacean carcasses are recycled after deposition on the seafloor.

Previous Research Projects

  • 2008 - Patterns of brittle star diversity in the deep-sea
  • 2008 - Reproduction of an Antarctic clam, Adacnarca nitens
  • 2007 - Reproduction of wood-boring worms, Xylophaga, in the deep-sea

Project details

Project title

The Taphonomy of Giants: Whale-Falls and Bioerosion in the Deep-Sea

Supervisors

  • Dr. Crispin Little
  • Dr. Adrian Glover (Natural History Museum, London)

Funding

NERC CASE Award with Natural History Museum (NE/G523755/1)

Start date

1st October 2008

Project outline

The objectives of the PhD project have been to:

  • characterise the borings and trace of Osedax in freshly-recovered bone
  • establish how Osedax carry out this burrowing
  • examine fossil bone from recently excavated material for Osedax traces
  • determine the role of microorganisms in the taphonomic process

Publications

  • Higgs N D, Glover A G, Dahlgren T G and Little C T S (2011) Bone-Boring Worms: Characterizing the Morphology, Rate, and Method of Bioerosion by Osedax mucofloris (Annelida, Siboglinidae) Biological Bulletin 221 : 307-316 . Biological Bulletin
  • Higgs N D, Little C T S and Glover A G (2011) Bones as biofuel: the composition of whale bones with implications for deep-sea biology and palaeoanthropology Proceedings of the Royal Society B 278 : 9-17 . Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 10.1098/rspb.2010.1267
  • Higgs N D, Little C T S, Glover A G, Dahlgren T G, Smith C R and Dominici S (2011) Evidence of Osedax worm borings in Pliocene (~3 Ma) whale bone from the Mediterranean Historical Biology . Historical Biology | 10.1080/08912963.2011.621167
  • Glover A G, Higgs N D, Bagley P M, Carlsson R, Davies A J, Kemp K M, Last K J, Norling K, Rosenberg R, Wallin K A, Kallstrom B and Dahlgren T (2010) A live video observatory reveals temporal processes at a shelf-depth whale-fall Cahiers de Biologie Marine 51 : 375-381 . Cahiers de Biologie Marine
  • Higgs N D, Glover A G, Dahlgren T G and Little C T S ( 2010 ) Using computed-tomography to document borings by Osedax mucofloris in whale bone Cahiers de Biologie Marine 51 : 401-405 . Cahiers de Biologie Marine
  • Higgs N D, Reed A J, Hooke R A, Honey D J, Heilmayer O and Thatje S ( 2009 ) Growth and reproduction in the Antarctic brooding bivalve Adacnarca nitens (Philobryidae) from the Ross Sea Marine Biology 156 : 1073-1081 . Marine Biology | 10.1007/s00227-009-1154-9