Life is present on Earth since 3.5 billion years and fossils are the direct evidence of this long history. During this time, organisms evolved and communities and ecosystems changed in response to endogenous and exogenous factors, such as, for example, climatic oscillations, plate tectonics and extra-terrestrial impacts.

The researchers aim at deciphering the huge archive of ancient life in order to reconstruct the climate and biodiversity changes and understand the role played by evolution, environment and paleogeography in shaping terrestrial and marine biotas.

Current projects focus mainly on assessing diversity trajectories of Mesozoic-Cenozoic marine benthic and planktonic organisms and evaluating the importance of ecological factors and paleogeographic constraints involved during background and mass extinction times or during short-transient periods of environmental stress.

Professors coordinating and developing projects related to this research pathway: Claudia Agnini, Anna Breda, Eliana Fornaciari, Manuel Rigo, Luca Giusberti, Stefano Monari, Roberto Gatto