IRATE – International Research workshop for the Advancement of Taphonomic Experiments
“All organic materials are subjected to postmortem taphonomic processes prior to
fossilisation, and therefore taphonomy is the foundation of all palaeobiological research.”
Project Leaders
Orla Bath-Enright (SMNS, Stuttgart)
Thomas Clements (FAU, now Reading, UK)
Over four decades, the results of decay experiments have allowed insights into the processes leading to fossilisation. However, some authors start to question the validity of decay experiments due to a fundamental misunderstanding of experimental design and the increasing number of taphonomic studies that lack robust experimental designs.
The workshop, created by a group of ECR experimental taphonomists, is to show leadership and define the future direction of experimental taphonomic research by:
1) Creating an active ECR experimental taphonomy community;
2) creating seminal publications based on best practices in experimental design;
3) creating an online resource, allowing researchers to efficiently find key information on experimental taphonomy.
The mission is to develop meaningful tools to aid palaeontologists in correctly utilising taphonomic methods and accurately transpose their data onto the fossil record.
Group members
Laura Devine (University of Portsmouth, UK), Pierre Gueriau (University of Lausanne, Switzerland), Valentina Rossi (University of Cork, Ireland), Nora Corthésy (University of Lausanne, Switzerland), Tiffany Slater (University of Cork, Ireland), Kelly Tingle (University of Vanderbilt, USA), Phil Vixseboxse (University of Cambridge, UK), Holly Anderson (University of Warsaw, Poland), Michael Chiappone (University of Minnesota, USA), Sarah Gabbott (University Leicester, UK)
Workshops
- Pre-PaleoSynthesis workshop taking place during PalAss 2024 in Erlangen
- PaleoSynthesis workshop took place April 7-11, 2025
upper left to right: Laura Devine, Michael Chiappone, Danijela Dimitrijevic, Phil Vixseboxse, Thomas Clements; lower left to right: Holly Anderson, Orla Bath-Enright, Nora Corthésy, Kelly Tingle