GZN News

In Earth’s history, there have been several catastrophes in which a large part of life on Earth has been wiped out. In the programme Campus Talks on ARD-alpha, Wolfgang Kießling shows parallels to the current climate situation on Earth. He gives an outlook to what extent a mass extinction of species...

Nussaibah Raja Schoob and other paleontologists are working to overcome some historical legacies of their discipline and change how people learn about natural history. She came to the attention of the New York Times. Congratulations, Nussaibah!

Is clustering of extinctions really an increase in extinction rate or is it merely generated by reduced sedimentation rates that reduce the spacing between individual extinctions with long breaks between each other? Niklas Hohmann, Paleobiology Master student, has examined this question in his Bachelor thesis, which is now published in PALAIOS (Hohmann 2021).

Abrupt changes in environmental signals recorded in an interval of strata can be the result of (1) fast changes in environmental conditions and average sedimentation rate or (2) average changes in environmental conditions and slow sedimentation rate. The new study by Dr. Emilia Jarochowska and co-authors, published in Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, proposes a method to estimate relative changes in depositional rates and test it in a sedimentary section

To bring us all together in these difficult times, the Annual Meeting of The Palaeontological Association 2020 ended with the Palaeovision Fossil Contest. This is an online, interactive, international competition to decide the Annual Meeting’s favourite fossil for this year. The master students of ...

For his excellent teaching in 2019, Prof. Dr. Axel Munnecke receives the “Prize for Good Teaching”! Science Minister Bernd Sibler announces the winners and congratulates them: “Your work is crucial for the success of the studies of students and thus for the training of smart minds who shape our ...

Dr. Erik Sperling from Stanford University will give a talk on the subject "Understanding the role of environmental change in early animal evolution: New insights from geochemistry, physiology, and ocean modeling".

Nature Research highlights GeoCentre research in Uganda: Scott Jess and team in collaboration with StrucTec at the GeoCentre in Earth and Planetary Science Letters show, that the western branch of the  East African Rift System is probably as old as the eastern branch.  This means the whole East Afri...

Prof. Wolfgang Kießling, Chair of Palaeobiology, and scientists from Australia have succeeded in providing a robust basis for the identification of "New Ecosystems" bereitzustellen, with fossils playing a special role: "Increased extinction in the emergence of novel ecological communities". At the s...

Rachel Warnock has accepted the offer for a W2 professorship in Systems Paleobiology. She will be joining our Team from 1st of October 2020.