PaleoSynthesis Timeline

Here you can find the most important achievements and steps taken since PaleoSynthesis started in October 2019.

💭 Workshops, 💬 Speaker Series, and ☀️ Summer School & more

2026

  1. October 1: 🚀 Launching PaleoSynthesis II

  2. September 30: 🏁 End of PaleoSynthesis I

2025

  1. September 20 – October 2: 💭 DeepIL

    “Most paleontological and ecological work revolves around the impact of the abiotic Earth system on life, but how does life influence Earth?”

  2. August 18 – September 5: ☀️ Summer School IV

    The Analytical Paleobiology (Workshop) School is dedicated to analytical training of graduate students

  3. April 7-11: 💭 IRATE

    “All organic materials are subjected to postmortem taphonomic processes prior to fossilisation, and therefore taphonomy is the foundation of all palaeobiological research.”

  4. April 1-4: 💭 AGELESS

    “Human-made climate change is not confined by national borders. The open ocean, which, for the most part, lies beyond national jurisdiction, is just as severely impacted by climate change as are nationally regulated coastal waters.”

2024

  1. December 9-13: 💭 IRATE

    pre-workshop during PalAss

  2. November: 💭 FDTP

    “The Cambrian Explosion coincides with the amalgamation of Gondwana… “ Exploring the nexus between plate tectonics, global palaeogeography and the rise of animal life

  3. August 24-28: 💭 MURKY

    “Coral reefs are the most biodiverse marine ecosystem on Earth today. In the Anthropocene, their immense value is threatened by human activities and associated climate change.“

  4. August 5-23: ☀️ Summer School III

    The Analytical Paleobiology (Workshop) School is dedicated to analytical training of graduate students

  5. May 5-9: 💭 PRIME

    “Extinctions are a fundamental part of evolution…we are at the beginning of a contemporary mass extinction event.“

  6. February 5-9: 💭 TRIBE

    “The geographic distribution of animals impacts a range of macroevolutionary trends.“

  7. January 9-12: 💭 IRAL

    “Compilations of “Compilations of fossil data are fundamental to modern paleontology.” This is: Big Data framework for the next generation of data infrastructure in paleontological research

2023

  1. August 21 – September 8: ☀️ Summer School II

    The Analytical Paleobiology (Workshop) School is dedicated to analytical training of graduate students

  2. July: 2nd Scientific Advisory Board elected and starting work

    Eight international peers that decide on the strategic focus and synthesis workshop topics; reflecting a balance of young and more experienced scientists with rather equal gender balance

  3. June 30 – July 1: ❔Big Questions Germany – PaleoG

    “(Although) Facing multiple global crises such as global warming and extinction … geological sciences including paleontology, have been barely visible in ESS … (but) Paleontology with its strong ties to both, life- and geosciences, is thus a key science in ESS.“ The future of paleontology in Germany – its role in Earth System Sciences

  4. May 9-12: 💭 BITE

    “Biotic interaction plays an important role in the evolution of groups through time.”

  5. 🗳️ May: mid-term evaluation by the Volkswagen Foundation

  6. May: 💬 IRAL speaker series

    Speaker series on palaeontological databases (GBDB, Neptune, PBDB & Macrostrat)

  7. January 10-13: 💭 BioDeepTime II

    “In a rapidly changing world, there is an urgent need to understand how communities respond to environmental perturbations of varying magnitudes and rates.“

2022

  1. August 22 – September 9: ☀️ Summer School I

    The Analytical Paleobiology (Workshop) School is dedicated to analytical training of graduate students

  2. March 27-30: 💭 BioDeepTime I

    “In a rapidly changing world, there is an urgent need to understand how communities respond to environmental perturbations of varying magnitudes and rates.“

2021

  1. November-December: 💬 DDCP speaker series

    “Considering the global challenges of climate change and current diversity crisis, and the perspective palaeobiology can contribute to tackling these challenges, our field cannot afford exclusion of or mistrust by any group.“

  2. July ff.: 💭 PaleoNov

    “Our proposed working group will advance core goals of conservation paleobiology….Paleontological research will be critical to understand the extent and drivers of ecological novelty, placing modern patterns in a deep-time context.“

2020

  1. June ff.: ❔Big Questions International

    What is your BIG Question in Paleontology? We seek to identify the Big Questions in Paleontology that will motivate research in our field for the coming years.

2019

  1. 🗳️ November: 1st Advisory Board elected and starting work

    Eight international peers that decide on the strategic focus and synthesis workshop topics; reflecting a balance of young and more experienced scientists with rather equal gender balance

  2. October 1: 🎉 PaleoSynthesis Project starts

PaleoSynthesis- and PostDoc-related Publications

📗 open access

2025

  1. Dowding et al

    accepted (preprint available): “Fossils for Future: the billion-dollar case for palaeontology’s digital infrastructure” (Nature Eco Evo)

  2. Kiessling et al

    📗 “Marine biological responses to abrupt climate change in deep time“ (Paleobiology)

  3. Fastovich et al

    “Coupled, decoupled, and abrupt responses of vegetation to climate across timescales“ (Science)

  4. 📗 Dunne et al

    “Data equity in paleobiology: progress, challenges, and future outlook“ (Paleobiology)

  5. Staples et al

    📗 “A conceptual framework for measuring ecological novelty“ (Global Ecology and Biogeography)

  6. Torsvik et al

    “Devonian palaeobiogeography and environmental change: an incomplete chronicle” (ZDGG)

2024

  1. de Baets

    📗 “Fossil constraints on the origin and evolution of Platyhelminthes are surprisingly concordant with modern molecular phylogenies” (Zoologica)

  2. Kiessling et al

    📗 “Census-based estimates of Mediterranean Olicocene-Miocene reef carbonate production” (Facies)

2023

  1. Smith et al

    “Increasing the equitability of data citation in paleontology: capacity building for the big data future” (Paleobiology)

  2. Na et al

    “Revisiting the Phanerozoic rock-diversity relationship“ (Geological Magazine)

  3. Smith et al

    “BioDeepTime: database and compilation code” (coding, ZENODO)

  4. Smith et al

    📗 “BioDeepTime: a database of biodiversity time series for modern and fossil assemblages” (Methods in Ecology and Evolution)

  5. Arenas-Castro et al

    📗 “Academic publishing requires linguistically inclusive policies” (Royal Society)

  6. Kiessling et al

    “Improving the relevance of paleontology to climate change policy“ (PNAS)

  7. Dowding et al

    📗 “Survivorship dynamics of the flora of Devonian Angarida” (Proceedings B)

  8. Michaux et al

    “Quantitative methods for the analysis of comparative geological data: Large igneous province barcoding and supercontinent reconstruction” (Precambrian Research)

  9. Martin et al

    Palaeontology from Australasia and beyond: Abstracts from Palaeo Down Under 3” (Alcheringa)

  10. Reddin et al

    📗 “Oversimplification risks too much: a response to ‘How predictable are mass extinction events?” (Royal Society)

  11. Ribeiro et al

    “Paleobiogeography of Lower-Middle Devonian Conulariids from southwest Gondwana” (South American Earth Sciences)

2022

  1. Dillon et al

    📗 “What is Conservation Paleobiology? Tracking 20 years of research and development” (Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution)

  2. Flannery-Sutherland et al

    📗 “fossilbrush: An R package for automated detection and resolution of anomalies in palaeontological occurrence data” (coding, Methods in Ecology and Evolution)

  3. Flannery-Sutherland et al

    📗 “fossilbrush:An R package for automated detection and resolution of anomalies in palaeontological occurrence data” (Methods in Ecology and Evolution)

  4. Raja et al

    “Fossil Trafficking, Fraud, and Fakery” (Art Crime in Context)

  5. Cisneros et al

    The moral and legal imperative to return illegally exported fossils” (Nature Eco Evo)

  6. Dunne et al

    📗 “Ethics, law, and politics in palaeontological research: The case of Myanmar amber” (Nature Comm Bio)

  7. Cisneros et al

    📗 “Digging deeper into colonial palaeontological practices in modern day Mexico and Brazil” (Royal Society)

  8. Raja et al

    “Publication pressure threatens the integrity of palaeontological research” (The Geological Curator)

  9. Raja et al

    “Colonial history and global economicsdistort our understanding of deep-time biodiversity“ (Nature Eco Evo)

  10. Stewens et al

    “The return of Fossils Removed Under Colonial Rule” (Santander Art and Culture Review)

  11. Dowding et al

    📗 “Validating marine Devonian biogeography: a study in bioregionalization” (Palaeontology)

  12. Shinbrot et al

    📗 “The Impact of Field Courses on Undergraduate Knowledge, Affect, Behavior, and Skills: A Scoping Review“ (BioScience)

  13. Smith et al

    “Assessing the utility of death assemblages as reference conditions in a common benthic index (M-AMBI) with simulations“ Geo Soc London, Special Publication)

2021

  1. Kocsis et al

    📗 “R interface for the GPlates Web Service and the GPlates Application” (coding, CRAN)