"Simulations are playing an increasingly important role in paleobiology. When designing a simulation study, many decisions have to be made and common challenges will be encountered along the way. Here, we outline seven rules for executing a good simulation study. We cover topics including the choic...
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has appointed palaeobiologist Wolfgang Kiessling to act as a main author of the next world climate report.
Knowledge of Primeval Times Helps to Counter the Climate Crisis
An interview with Wolfgang Kiessling was published by the Volkswagen...
"Results Plant life-forms and PFTs showed a clear pattern within geographic but also climate space, while topography had a minor effect. Phanerophytes mainly contributed to the flora in humid areas. Chamaephytes and hemicryptophytes most strongly contributed to the summit scrub flora and, to some d...
In April 2020 the SVP sent a letter to more than 300 paleontology journals with proposals for "significant changes to the common practices in palaeontology".
Carolin Haug and more than 40 colleagues welcome the initiative but consider the proposals to be counter-productive. The authors explain t...
"Calcareous red algae have been important components in reefal facies since the Mesozoic but their volumetric contribution to Palaeozoic reefs was usually low. Here, we report a reef-building community dominated by Parachaetetes, a genus of solenoporacean red algae, overgrowing uppermost Permian sp...
"Despite reports of sexual dimorphism in extinct taxa, such claims in non-avian dinosaurs have been rare over the last decade and have often been criticized. Since dimorphism is widespread in sexually reproducing organisms today, under-reporting in the literature might suggest either methodological...
"The classical taxonomy of fossil invertebrates is based on subjective judgments of morphology, which can cause confusion, because there are no codified standards for the classification of genera. Here, we explore the validity of the genus taxonomy of 75 species and morphospecies of the Follicucull...
"During the GOBE biodiversity increased remarkedly. Origination and extinction appears similar across diverse groups and geographical areas. This study focuses on hard substrate taxa and results indicate that there was a common cause of Ordovician diversification dynamics"The Great Ordovician Biodi...
After our survey for the Big Questions is finished we present the first results here. We are currently analyzing, categorizing and evaluating the Big Questions but we can present at least a tendency regarding the "Big Topics". The graph illustrates the distribution of the participants' interests.
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"Trilobites offer insight into the growth and development of fossil ecdysozoans. Elrathia kingii (Meek) is used to estimate growth rates and describe shape change over the ontogeny. The rate of cephalic shape change in E. kingii decreased at the transition from meraspis to holaspis, while the pygid...
