With an increase in the Earth’s population, development and industrialization are taking place rapidly and these get the major source of water contamination. Heavy metals are one of the most toxic contaminants of the aquatic ecosystems. Increasing industrialization and anthropogenic activities are causing an increasing pollution in soils and water. More than 100,000 chemicals are …[Read More]
Fossils on screen
In these days fossils are becoming the new Hollywood stars as we are more and more pushed to use new -or sort of new- approaches for disseminating paleontology which pass through a screen. Technology is providing us with several ways to reach homes, colleagues throughout the world, or classrooms to share our research. The EGU …[Read More]
Adaptation and inheritance in the geosciences
Every year, the Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Paleontology Division awards one scientist for their outstanding contribution to stratigraphy, sedimentology or paleontology with the Lamarck medal in recognition of the scientific achievements of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (Bazentin-le-Petit, 1-02-1744 – Paris, 18-12-1829). It was the 11 May 1800 when Jean Baptiste Lamarck presented a lecture at the Muséum national d’histoire naturelle …[Read More]
The hard part of life: the secrets of biomineralization
Biomineralization is a fascinating natural process by which living organisms produce hierarchical mineral structures with diverse functions. The “secrets” of biomineralization are explored by the scientists since decades but there are still open questions regarding its function, the regulating mechanisms and why and when biomineralization started.This process occurs through self-organization of organic and inorganic molecules …[Read More]
Paleontology is sexy! A selection of recent discoveries
The 2019 started with a relatively high number of paleontological discoveries published in highly ranked journals showing that paleontology is sexy indeed! Here you can find a small selection of the most recent ones. The studies in micro- and macropaleontology published earlier this year, provide a large contribution to our understanding of organism evolution and response …[Read More]
Strati 2019
The abstract submission to the third edition of the International Congress on Stratigraphy (STRATI) is now open. The congress will be held in Milano (Italy) from the 2nd to the 5th of July 2019. STRATI 2019 follows the first edition held in Lisbon (Portugal) in 2013 and the second edition organized in Graz (Austria) in 2015. …[Read More]
Brachiopods in a changing planet: from the past to the future
Between the 10thand 14th of September 2018, the 8thInternational Brachiopod Congress took place in the prestigious venue of the University of Milan, after the previous editions held in Melbourne (Australia) in 2010 and in Nanjing (China) in 2015. It was the first time, since its foundation over 35 years ago, that this important conference was …[Read More]
Tiny but powerful
Oceans are “populated” by millions of specimens of microscopic organisms which constitute the phytoplanktonic communities (e.g. diatoms, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria and coccolithophorids). These tiny organisms are important indicators of the “health” of present oceans and their remains constitute important tracers of past paleoenvironmental conditions. The ocean is in fact the oldest and largest ecosystem on Earth …[Read More]
Ocean drilling: 50 years of explorations
After 50 years of ocean explorations, scientists continue to rely on cored material from beneath the ocean floor. The material recovered during oceanographic expeditions constitutes, in fact, a great archive where to look for answers to unravel the Earth’s system history. Over the last decades, subsequent scientific ocean drilling programs (Deep Sea Drilling Project, Ocean …[Read More]