Program & Abstracts
Abstracts book (coming soon)
Preliminary Program
*Presentations eligible for the Student/Postdoc Best Oral presentation Award
**Presentations eligible for the Student/Postdoc Best Lightning Talk Award
Sunday, July 27, 2025 |
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08:00-09:00 |
Registrations ✍️ |
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09:00-17:00 |
Workshop 1: Building open data science skills in paleobiology and ecology |
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Workshop 2: Decoding the past: deep learning for macroevolutionary analyses |
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Monday, July 28, 2025 |
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08:00-09:00 |
Registrations, poster set up, tea and coffee ✍️☕️ |
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09:00-09:05 |
Welcome address and opening remarks |
Session 1 |
Evolutionary Dynamics and Diversification Patterns |
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09:05 |
Keynote: Leveraging AI to understand past and present biodiversity dynamics |
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09:50 |
*Addressing cryptic diversity in crocodylian diversification dynamics analysis |
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10:05 |
*Breaking the code of diversification: deciphering 60 million years of large herbivore evolution through unsupervised neural networks |
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10:20 |
**Regional and Global Drivers of Mesozoic Dinosaur Diversification ⚡️ |
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10:25 |
**Rise, demise, and replacement: The evolutionary history of Cenozoic South American mammals ⚡️ |
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10:30 |
Coffee Break and Poster Session ☕️ 📃 |
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11:00 |
*Invasion and Interaction: Diversity shifts in the Nashville Basin during the Late Ordovician Richmondian Invasion |
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11:15 |
*Ontogeny and Population Structure of the Early Jawless Fish Protaspis (Heterostracan) from the Devonian Period |
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11:30 |
Occupancy and extinction dynamics in Phanerozoic bivalves |
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11:45 |
*Evaluation of the third law of paleobiology in large herbivorous mammals |
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12:00 |
*Extinction patterns in sloths are explained by life history traits, not phylogeny |
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12:15 |
**The Impact of Tip Age Distribution on Reconstructing Trait Evolution Using Phylogenetic Comparative Methods ⚡️ |
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12:20 |
**Are ecological and dental traits conserved along the shark tree of life? ⚡️ |
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12:25 |
Low diversity in semicircular canal shape mirrors the reduced genetic variation of Late Pleistocene Neandertals ⚡️ |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch Break 🥪 |
Session 2 |
Trophic Ecology and Ecological Interactions |
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*The Lost World: Building Food Webs for Paleo Communities |
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13:45 |
*Dietary partitioning and ecosystem structural shifts revealed by dental microwear in faunivorous megatheropod dinosaurs during the Cretaceous |
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14:00 |
Ecological dynamics and conservation paleobiology implications of Thylacoleo carnifex extinction in Australia |
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14:15 |
Prehistoric archives provide evidence for a cascading effect of predator loss in Caribbean reef fish communities |
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14:30 |
*From extirpation to reintroduction: investigating the trophic ecology of the Dalmatian pelican (Pelecanus crispus) in England using stable isotopes |
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14:45 |
*The keystone role of Woolly Mammoths in Pleistocene ecosystems: dietary insights from coprolite evidence |
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15:00 |
*Are introduced species appropriate ecological substitutes for Pleistocene megafauna? (virtual) |
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15:15 |
The evolution of ecosystem and Earth system engineering |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break and Poster Session ☕️ 📃 |
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16:00 |
**Small fossils, big insights: mites and ecological interactions preserved in amber ⚡️ |
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16:05 |
**264 North American Trophic Networks through the Cenozoic and the Future of the World’s Food Chains ⚡️ |
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16:10 |
Compound-specific stable isotopes of amino acids reveal ecology of planktic foraminifera species (virtual) ⚡️ |
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16:15 |
Keynote: Deep-time ecology and evolution of dietary adaptations through chemical fingerprints (virtual) |
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17:30-20:30 |
Icebreaker and poster session 🍷📃 |
Tuesday, July 29, 2025 |
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08:00-09:00 |
Tea and coffee ☕️ |
Session 3 |
Extinctions and Recovery |
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Keynote: Using ecology to unlock the secrets of early animal evolution |
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09:45 |
*Causes and consequences of a marine megafaunal extinction |
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10:00 |
The differing response of carnivores to the terminal Pleistocene extinction |
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10:15 |
Pathologies, Inbreeding, and Extinction: On the dwindling populations of Smilodon fatalis of the La Brea Tar Pits ⚡️ |
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10:20 |
Neotropical freshwater fish faunal extinction and diversification in the Neogene ⚡️ |
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10:25 |
Neotropical lungfish and bonytongues: the fossil record of geologically resilient and currently endangered clades ⚡️ |
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10:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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11:00 |
Spatial restructuring of bivalve diversity through the last mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary |
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11:15 |
Responses and effects of marine ecosystem engineers during the end-Permian mass extinction |
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11:30 |
A Tale of Two Paleocommunities: Functional variation after the Permo-Triassic mass extinction |
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11:45 |
*The impact of Permian–Triassic mass extinction on marine trophic web structure |
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12:00 |
*Ecosystem Recovery Following the Permo-Triassic Mass Extinction |
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12:15 |
**A Taxonomic Distinctness Approach to Macroevolutionary Dynamics of Bivalve Recovery in the Triassic ⚡️ |
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12:20 |
**Snake diversification rates estimated from occurrence data reveal a significant impact of the K-Pg extinction event on the group ⚡️ |
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12:25 |
When boom and bust clades meet with landscape ecology: A new look at the ammonoid recovery in the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction (virtual) ⚡️ |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch Break 🥪 |
Session 4 |
Biodiversity Patterns and Biogeography |
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13:30 |
Keynote: Climate impacts on terrestrial tetrapods in deep time |
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14:15 |
*Future paleontologists will detect current mammal Latitudinal Biodiversity Gradient (virtual) |
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14:30 |
*Occupancy modelling as a novel approach for conservation palaeobiology |
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14:45 |
*Geographical patterns in the diversity of small mammal species in mainland Spain related to contemporary climate and its potential use for palaeoecological inferences. |
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15:00 |
Climate velocity and extinction in ancient and modern communities ⚡️ |
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15:05 |
**Bivalve body-size and geographical range variability: a long-term view on temperature effects (virtual) ⚡️ |
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15:10 |
Revised Pridoli (Upper Silurian) acanthodians samples from Lithuania in the NRC collection⚡️ |
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15:15 |
Cephalopods as ecosystem engineers ⚡️ |
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15:20 |
**Functional Ecology of the Dorsal Sail in Spinosaurus: From Ornament to Utility (Adaptive Significance) ⚡️ |
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15:25 |
**Functional trade-offs and innovation shape the adaptive landscape of aquatic mammal feeding ⚡️ |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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16:00 |
*Biome Conservatism in Northern Hemisphere Tree Clades |
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16:15 |
*Mammalian habitat specialization in a phylogenetic context |
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16:30 |
*The importance of savannas in the colonization of open environments during the ruminant evolution |
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16:45 |
**Climate Availability as an Attractor for Miocene Mammal Diversity Accumulation ⚡️ |
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16:50 |
The biogeography of the Great American Biotic Interchange ⚡️ |
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16:55 |
The local-scale spatial structure of immigrants during the Great American Biotic Interchange ⚡️ |
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17:30-19:30 |
Guided walking tour of Zurich 🤳 |
Wednesday, July 30, 2025 |
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08:00-09:00 |
Tea and coffee ☕️ |
Session 5 |
Conservation Paleobiology and Historical Ecology I |
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09:00 |
Keynote: Revealing past transformations in marine social-ecological systems from historical sources |
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09:45 |
*Exploring the historical ecology of the Southern Central American Pacific Coast and its conservation implications (virtual) |
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10:00 |
Using the (sub)fossil record of the Australian Anthropocene to inform biodiversity conservation |
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10:15 |
**Palaeoecological perspectives on Mountainous vegetation succession and land-use in the Peloponnese (southern Greece) over the last millennium (virtual) ⚡️ |
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10:20 |
**History's Wild Ride: Zoological Baselines Through Time in the Bear River Range (virtual) ⚡️ |
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10:25 |
Crossing the Gap to Help Restore Indigenous Socio-Environmental Systems in the Bear River Basin, USA ⚡️ |
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10:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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11:00 |
*Using paleoecology to explore resilient lifeways in the face of abrupt climate change |
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11:15 |
Conservation-led palaeoecology: lessons from practitioners to improve accessibility and value to conservation practice (virtual) |
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11:30 |
Leveraging the past to strengthen conservation stories |
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11:45 |
Securing the Future Through the Past: Analysing Conservation Paleobiology in South America (virtual) |
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12:00 |
Addressing the Gap between a place and its Paleontological-Ecological record: Case Study Bahamas (virtual) |
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12:15 |
**A ~1,200 year record of common eider population trends in the Eastern Canadian Arctic (virtual) ⚡️ |
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12:20 |
**Disentangling the seabird nesting history of Green Island in Witless Bay Ecological Reserve, NL using paleolimnology (virtual) ⚡️ |
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12:25 |
**Do oryx fit in? An unintentional test case of ungulate rewilding in New Mexico (virtual)⚡️ |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch Break 🥪 |
Session 6 |
Conservation Paleobiology and Historical Ecology II |
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13:30 |
Keynote: Using mechanistic biodiversity models to navigate the paleoenvironmental–ecological–evolutionary gap |
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14:15 |
*Using species distribution models to assess faunal extinction risk in the past (virtual) |
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14:30 |
*Understanding the causes and chronology of local extinctions of the Cuban crocodile (Crocodylus rhombifer) across the Holocene Caribbean to inform its future conservation |
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14:45 |
*Climate-proofing’ lion conservation by integrating modern and palaeontological data in forecasts of habitat suitability. |
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15:00 |
The Llamara Salt Flat Tamarugo (Strombocarpa tamarugo) Population: A Refuge Under Millennial and Contemporary Global Change |
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15:15 |
Plants have higher climate fidelity than mammals, and industrialization made it worse (virtual) ⚡️ |
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15:20 |
**Dispersal Syndrome and Climatic Niches of Holocene and Late Pleistocene Birds ⚡️ |
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15:25 |
**Back to the Future: The historical distribution of the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) in the Iberian Peninsula (virtual) ⚡️ |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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16:00 |
*Effects of long-term environmental changes and human impacts on the functional diversity of molluscan nearshore communities of the Po-Adriatic System (Italy) |
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16:15 |
*Emergence of a megacity and its impact on shallow marine benthic ecosystem: A case study from Mumbai, India |
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16:30 |
Combining Environmental Monitoring and the Fossil Record to Support Coral Reef Management in the East Portland Special Fishery Conservation Area, Jamaica (virtual) |
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16:45 |
Tracking refugee species in forests with carbon stable isotopes: implications for conservation ⚡️ |
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16:50 |
Hermann’s tortoise (Chersine hermanni) from Cueva de la Buena Pinta (Middle to Late Pleistocene; Pinilla del Valle, Spain): Palaeoecological Insights and Conservation Implications (virtual) ⚡️ |
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16:55 |
**A dhole’s tale: using the Pleistocene fossil record of the dhole (Cuon alpinus, Pallas 1811) to understand modern threats and future conservation challenges ⚡️ |
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17:30-19:30 |
Informal gathering and networking 🍹 |
Thursday, July 31, 2025 |
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08:00-09:00 |
Tea and coffee ☕️ |
Session 7 |
Biotic Responses to Environmental Change |
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09:00 |
Keynote: To see the forest for its leaves: Evolution, extinction and ecology of Neotropical forests in deep (and recent) time (virtual) |
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09:45 |
Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Mollusk Communities in Response to Emergence of the Isthmus of Panama |
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10:00 |
*Patterns of intrinsic vulnerability to range shift and extinction Pliocene to present in northeastern Atlantic bivalves. |
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10:15 |
Slimehead size through time: testing the temperature-size relationship in Late Cretaceous Trachichthyidae (virtual) ⚡️ |
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10:20 |
**Establishing a Late Cretaceous baseline for present rates of biodiversity change with the fossil record of Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta, Canada ⚡️ |
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10:25 |
Environmentally-suppressed speciation, not higher extinction, emptied the megaherbivore niche in Africa ⚡️ |
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10:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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11:00 |
*Tracking sharks’ responses to climate disturbances on coral reefs over millennia in the Panamanian Pacific |
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11:15 |
*Coral reef refugia through time: Insights from the fossil record |
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11:30 |
*Tracing coral morphological traits during the Early Paleogene hothouse |
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11:45 |
*Functional overlap between Last Interglacial (MIS5e, Pleistocene) ‘warm guests’ and resident temperate species in the Mediterranean Sea |
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12:00 |
Lessons from coral reefs that accrete to the beat of their own drum (virtual) |
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12:15 |
**Millennial scale reef community shifts in the Spermonde Archipelago, South Sulawesi ⚡️ |
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12:20 |
The Last Interglacial (MIS5e, Pleistocene) as an analog of future climatic and biotic scenarios in the Mediterranean Sea ⚡️ |
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12:25 |
**Before and After Glaciation: Isotopic Insights from Antarctic Peninsula Molluscan Communities ⚡️ |
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12:30-13:30 |
Lunch Break 🥪 |
Session 8 |
Fossil Record Bias and Methodological Advances |
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13:30 |
*Plotting on possible Earths: deep time and future geography |
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13:45 |
*Characterizing interaction and coexistence in clades and assemblages in deep time |
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14:00 |
*A Recommender Systems Approach to Estimating Population Densities in Fossil Faunas |
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14:15 |
*Space-for-time substitution depends on ecological and spatial scales |
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14:30 |
*Information loss in the fossil record (virtual) |
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14:45 |
*Environmental Controls on the Depositional Resolution of the Stratigraphic Record |
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15:00 |
Testing hypotheses on the fossil record in silico: stratigraphic forward models of carbonate environments (virtual) ⚡️ |
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15:05 |
How well does the fossil record represent key biodiversity metrics? A test of palynological data as an archive of vegetation phylogenetic diversity ⚡️ |
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15:10 |
**Weak support for ergodic processes in fossil mammal community structure in Western Europe ⚡️ |
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15:15 |
**Morphometric and spatial analyses of Charniodiscus from the Ediacaran of Newfoundland, Canada ⚡️ |
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15:20 |
Using archaeological data to map parasite diversity throughout Holocene ⚡️ |
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15:25 |
**Decoding the secrets of cave bear behaviour using ancient DNA ⚡️ |
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15:30 |
Coffee Break ☕️ |
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16:00 |
Correcting marine community composition estimates from biological sedimentary archives using paleontological and ecological-derived sampling methods (virtual) |
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16:15 |
Live-dead comparisons of the marine benthos suggest that fossil assemblages archive trophic information with high fidelity |
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16:30 |
Same variables, different results: the importance of sensitivity analyses in deep-time evolutionary studies |
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16:45 |
The impact of fossil biases on phylogenetic inferences: a simulation approach using mammals (virtual) |
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17:00 |
Closing remarks and prizes announcement |
Friday, August 1, 2025 |
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08:00-19:00 |
Field trip to Holderbank and Lenzburg 🏔️ |
Posters
Monday, July 28, 2025
Natural History Museum
*Posters eligible for the Student/Postdoc Best Poster Award
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1 |
Systematics and Paleoecology of New Mammalian Remains from the Middle Siwalik Deposits of Northern, Pakistan |
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2 |
Systematics and Paleoclimate of Terrestrial Mammalian Fauna from the Late Miocene (11.2 – 3.58 Ma) Siwalik Deposits of Pakistan |
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3* |
Deep-time extinction and diversity patterns of Crocodylia indicate high susceptibility of the clade to environmental changes |
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4* |
Small Carnivores and Human Impact: Tracing Adaptations from Deep Past to Future |
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5 |
Small bodied mammals show more constraint in their jaw ecomorphologies than large bodied mammals |
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6* |
Plant-insect response to disturbance in two modern forests provide insight into deep-time forest responses in elevated global temperatures |
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7 |
Piecing Together the Past: Harnessing AI for Dinosaur Fossil Reconstruction |
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8* |
Age-Dependent extinction in Carnivora: exploring the role of species pools as adaptive zones and ecological assemblages. |
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9 |
How many characters are needed to reconstruct a phylogeny? |
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10 |
Sloths (Phyllophaga) from the Urumaco Neogene sequence of Venezuela - the challenge of diversity estimates in view of biased preservation of skeletal parts |
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11* |
Ediacaran phylogenetic community analyses |
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12* |
Where the shuck did the oysters go? A gap in the Neogene oyster record |
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13* |
Open Palaeontology – a community-driven diamond open access journal with preregistration |
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14* |
Experimental Fluid Dynamics: validating Computational Fluid Dynamics palaeoecological simulations |
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15* |
Can ecological features predict the quality of the Carnivoran fossil record? |
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16 |
The phylogenetic signal of extinction through the rise and fall of early vertebrates – field of bullets or clustered strike? |
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17 |
Refined taxonomy and chronology to understand faunal changes and extinction: New investigations on megamammals from the Argentinean Pampas and the historical Roth collection |
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18* |
New insights on Cruziana ecology during the Early Ordovician |
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19 |
The South American rat-kangaroo Argyrolagus (Marsupialia, Argyrolagidae): Paleoecological reconstructions based on CT and new fossils from the Pliocene of Argentina |
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20 |
Reconstructing Late Miocene freshwater ecosystems at Toros-Menalla (Chad), through aquatic vertebrate paleocommunities study |
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21* |
rredlist 1.0: an updated R client for the IUCN Red List API |
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22* |
Interspecific competition in deep-time: a new species-level approach |
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23 |
Ecomorphological diversity in Cambrian rhynchonelliformean brachiopods from the middle Cambrian of north Spain. |
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24 |
A tale of cities: cylindrical enrolment in the Cambrian and Ordovician trilobites |
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25* |
Australian Veneridae (Mollusca:Bivalvia): Palaeoclimate change, future climate impacts; exploring morphological shifts linked with environmental change in deep time. |
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26 |
A new fossil insect fauna of the northern neotropics (Pliocene, San Gregrio Formation, Venezuela) |
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27* |
Refining the use of oxygen isotopes of southern hard clam (Mercenaria campechiensis) shells as archives for paleoclimatic reconstructions. |
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28* |
Elucidating diversity dynamics in Cenozoic marine tropical hotspots |
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29 |
Palaeoverse: a community-driven R package to support palaeobiological analysis |
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30 |
The Mio – Pliocene Tragulids (Mammalia) from the Siwaliks of Pakistan |
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31* |
Past and present climate change effects on mesophotic benthic communities in the Central Mediterranean |
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32* |
Does spatial range determine the longevity of shark species? |
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33 |
Impacts of Environmental Change on Pleistocene and Holocene Animal-Sediment Interactions, Willapa Bay, Washington, USA |
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34* |
Reinterpreting the affinity of Retidiporites magdalenensis: evidence of extinction in the fossil record. |
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35* |
Morphometric analysis with quantitative measurements of fairy shrimps reveals size differences between fossil and extant species and indicates different feeding strategies. |
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36* |
Gone in the blink of an eye: the effects of rock-weathering rates in the preservation of Cambrian acritarch and carbonaceous microfossils |
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37* |
Unravelling the ecology of aquatic turtles from the Late Jurassic of Europe through stable isotope analysis |
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38* |
The past, present, and future of the Indigenous maize farming niche in the American Southwest |
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39* |
Ecological drivers of cranial morphological evolution in equids |
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40* |
Where the wild cats aren’t |
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41 |
DNA barcoding of benthic Foraminifera (Ammonia dentata) 18S rRNA : A potential Footprint for assessing Marine Ecological Ecosystem of India |
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42* |
Climate's impact on the biodiversity patterns of Diplodocoidea during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition |
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43* |
Oxygen controls lanternfish growth across the Isthmus of Panama: Insights from geohistorical otolith assemblages |
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44 |
Identification of environmental parameters through stable isotopes in Quaternary and present continental mollusc assemblages from Uruguay. |
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45* |
Smear slide analysis of lake sediments to evaluate impacts of humans on eight lakes on the Lac du Flambeau Reservation in Northern Wisconsin, USA |
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46* |
Utilising the archaeological record to create long-term biodiversity baselines for declining UK bird populations: Enhancing conservation and ecological understanding. |
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47* |
Spatiotemporal Phylogeography of the Endangered African Wild Dog |
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48 |
Advancing Conservation Paleobiology in South America: Teamwork, Perspectives, and Hurdles |
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49* |
Diversity of temperate and tropical molluscs across the Mediterranean Sea during the Last Interglacial (Late Pleistocene, MIS5e) |
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50* |
First Coleoptera fossil records from Lithuania: Lateglacial and Early Holocene environmental reconstructions |
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51 |
Some Like it Hot: Examining Thermal Tolerance at Extreme Body Size |
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52* |
Can polymorphism-aware phylogenetic models improve inference with discrete morphological data? |
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53* |
Extinction patterns of marine turtles throughout the Mesozoic and Cenozoic: insights for Conservation Biology |
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54* |
Long tails and no eiderdown: paleontological research reveals different Quaternary distributions of North Sea ducks |
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55 |
Is there a pattern of convergence in the cochlea of river dolphins? |
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56 |
New stories from Ancient Tagua Tagua Lake (Central Chile): What does the vertebrate record tell us beyond the Late Pleistocene? |
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57 |
The progressive disappearance of fossils and fossils imprints in south western Madagascar: challenges and conservation perspectives |
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58* |
Past ranges and future habitats: Paleogenomic and ecological insights into Gopherus tortoise conservation |