During his years at UCD he earned a BA in 2007 in Spanish with a minor in Religious Studies, became a member of the Scientific and Medical Network and taught and published on the evolution of consciousness.
As a graduate student and post-doctoral researcher at Glasgow University (1977–1980), he studied Welsh Ordovician paleoecology and represented Wales in athletics.
[4] In 1980 Lockley took a position as assistant professor of geology at the University of Colorado Denver, and began his field-oriented research on fossil footprints.
[5] Lockley in 2014 researched fossil trackways in Colorado and western North America,[6] China,[7] South Korea,[8] Spain and the UK.
He has been involved in efforts to create Geoparks, UNESCO World Heritage sites and other protected areas in North America, Europe and East Asia.