Archaeologists and palaeontologists widely hold that the australopiths played a significant part in human evolution, being the first of the hominins to show presence of a gene that causes increased length and ability of neurons in the brain, the duplicated SRGAP2 gene.
The village is known to palaeontologists as a rediscovered Lagerstätte, a site of remarkably preserved fossils, in this case in the Middle Jurassic Oxford clay, in which a chance discovery in the 19th century uncovered thousands of exquisitely preserved ammonites, fish and crustaceans.
Differences between the impressions on slab and counterslab led Fred Hoyle and Lee Spetner in 1985 to declare that some Archaeopteryx fossils had been forged, a claim dismissed by most palaeontologists.
Subsequently many similar skulls were unearthed by prominent palaeontologists of the day, including Robert Broom, Alexander Galloway, William Pycraft, Sidney Haughton, Raymond Dart, and others.
He has a longstanding collaboration with palaeontologists such as Tom Rich and Patricia Vickers-Rich, and more recently Guy Narbonne, having created numerous original artistic reconstructions of extinct animals.
In August 2006, palaeontologists of the University of Oslo discovered the first remains of a pliosaur on Norwegian soil.
It was discovered by expeditions organized by the American Museum of Natural History, and described by palaeontologists Diego Pol and Mark Norell.