| Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation RS Sansom, SE Gabbott, MA Purnell Nature 463 (7282), 797-800, 2010 | 230 | 2010 |
| Fossilization causes organisms to appear erroneously primitive by distorting evolutionary trees RS Sansom, MA Wills Scientific Reports 3 (1), 2545, 2013 | 107 | 2013 |
| Decay of vertebrate characters in hagfish and lamprey (Cyclostomata) and the implications for the vertebrate fossil record RS Sansom, SE Gabbott, MA Purnell Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278 (1709), 1150-1157, 2011 | 101 | 2011 |
| Phylogeny, classification and character polarity of the Osteostraci (Vertebrata) RS Sansom Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 7 (1), 95-115, 2009 | 81 | 2009 |
| Taphonomy and affinity of an enigmatic Silurian vertebrate, Jamoytius kerwoodi White RS Sansom, KIM Freedman, SE Gabbott, RJ Aldridge, MA Purnell Palaeontology 53 (6), 1393-1409, 2010 | 79 | 2010 |
| Atlas of vertebrate decay: a visual and taphonomic guide to fossil interpretation RS Sansom, SE Gabbott, MA Purnell Palaeontology 56 (3), 457-474, 2013 | 72 | 2013 |
| Pigmented anatomy in Carboniferous cyclostomes and the evolution of the vertebrate eye SE Gabbott, PCJ Donoghue, RS Sansom, J Vinther, A Dolocan, ... Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283 (1836), 20161151, 2016 | 71 | 2016 |
| The nearshore cradle of early vertebrate diversification L Sallan, M Friedman, RS Sansom, CM Bird, IJ Sansom Science 362 (6413), 460-464, 2018 | 70 | 2018 |
| Dental data perform relatively poorly in reconstructing mammal phylogenies: morphological partitions evaluated with molecular benchmarks RS Sansom, MA Wills, T Williams Systematic Biology 66 (5), 813-822, 2017 | 63 | 2017 |
| Parsimony, not Bayesian analysis, recovers more stratigraphically congruent phylogenetic trees RS Sansom, PG Choate, JN Keating, E Randle Biology letters 14 (6), 20180263, 2018 | 56 | 2018 |
| Experimental analysis of soft‐tissue fossilization: opening the black box MA Purnell, PJC Donoghue, SE Gabbott, ME McNamara, DJE Murdock, ... Palaeontology 61 (3), 317-323, 2018 | 56 | 2018 |
| Preservation and phylogeny of Cambrian ecdysozoans tested by experimental decay of Priapulus RS Sansom Scientific Reports 6 (1), 32817, 2016 | 55 | 2016 |
| Soft-part anatomy of the Early Cambrian bivalved arthropods Kunyangella and Kunmingella: significance for the phylogenetic relationships of Bradoriida X Hou, M Williams, DJ Siveter, DJ Siveter, RJ Aldridge, RS Sansom Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 277 (1689), 1835-1841, 2010 | 55 | 2010 |
| Endochondral bone in an Early Devonian ‘placoderm’ from Mongolia M Brazeau, S Giles, R Dearden, A Jerve, Y Ariunchimeg, E Zorig, ... Nature Ecology & Evolution 4, pages1477–1484, 2020 | 48 | 2020 |
| Bias and sensitivity in the placement of fossil taxa resulting from interpretations of missing data RS Sansom Systematic Biology 64 (2), 256-266, 2015 | 48 | 2015 |
| Discriminating signal from noise in the fossil record of early vertebrates reveals cryptic evolutionary history RS Sansom, E Randle, PCJ Donoghue Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 282 (1800), 20142245, 2015 | 43 | 2015 |
| Sampling diverse characters improves phylogenies: craniodental and postcranial characters of vertebrates often imply different trees RCP Mounce, R Sansom, MA Wills Evolution 70 (3), 666-686, 2016 | 39 | 2016 |
| Experimental Decay of Soft Tissues RS Sansom Reading and Writing of the Fossil Record: Preservational Pathways to …, 2014 | 39 | 2014 |
| The origin and early evolution of the Osteostraci (Vertebrata): a phylogeny for the Thyestiida RS Sansom Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6 (3), 317-332, 2008 | 36 | 2008 |
| Unusual anal fin in a Devonian jawless vertebrate reveals complex origins of paired appendages RS Sansom, SE Gabbott, MA Purnell Biology letters 9 (3), 20130002, 2013 | 34 | 2013 |
