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

2026

  1. September 30: 🏁 End of PaleoSynthesis I

    With end of PaleoSynthesis we switch to PaleoSynthesis II.

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. 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

  3. May 9-12: 💭 BITE

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

  4. May: 💬 IRAL speaker series

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

  5. 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.“

  6. May: mid-term evaluation by the Volkswagen Foundation

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. October 1: 🎉 PaleoSynthesis Project starts

PaleoSynthesis- and PostDoc-related Publications

2025

2024

2023

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

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

  6. Stewens et al

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

  7. Shinbrot et al

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

  8. 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