Stratigraphic Palaeobiology: understanding the structure of the fossil record

This course aims at giving an introduction to the discipline of Stratigraphic Palaeobiology. Stratigraphic Palaeobiology is a useful tool to understand the structure of the fossil record, and by doing that, overcoming its incompleteness. It is based on the concept that the distribution of fossil taxa in time and space is controlled not only by their ecology and evolution, but also by the stratigraphic processes that govern where and when sediments that might contain fossils are deposited and preserved. Over the course, students will learn how to read and analyse palaeontological data within a sequence-stratigraphic framework, in order to reconstruct tempo and mode of marine ecosystem change over a wide range of temporal and spatial scales.As guest lectures, Daniele Scarponi (Università di Bologna) and Stefano Dominici (Università di Firenze), will present case-studies on the application of Stratigraphic Palaeobiology to the study of Quaternary mollusc asemblages from the Po Plain, and to the fossil record of Neogene-Quaternary large marine vertebrates, respectively.The course is organised in 4 day of lessons, with theoretical and practical contents (6 hours/day) and 1 day of fieldtrip (Pliocene of Tuscany, 8 hours).DOTTORATO TOSCANO IN SCIENZE DELLA TERRA(Unversità degli Studi di Firenze, Pisa e Siena) Per maggiori informazioni contattare la dott.ssa Silvia Danise (silvia.danise@unifi.it)