PaleoSynthesis

A huge shout-out to Elizabeth M. Dowding (@the.fairest.fowl) for creating this groundbreaking article, and congratulations on its publication in Nature Eco & Evo. Great work and absolutely worth reading: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

Monday night, continuous snowfall ❄️ started to set in... nearly 35 cm compacted over the day. A day for home office followed by a nice walk! Today, the weather has calmed down, and likely most of us have sore muscles from shovelling snow 😅

🎓 IPC7 Travel Grants – Call for Applications

The IPC7 organisers offers five Travel Grants to support delegates wishing to attend the IPC7.

Each grant covers:
✈️ Return economy airfare
🏨 Accommodation (University residence)
🎟️ Registration fee
🍽️ Conference dinner

First workshop decision 2026! ConSensIS (Rachel Racicot, Senckenberg; Travis Park, Monash) made it. The CONservation SENSory paleobiology International Scientific network aims to establish a conservation sensory paleobiology community for the very first time. Congratulations!

PaleoSynthesis is running for >6 years. Elizabeth M. Dowding has been on board almost from the start. She's not only been committed to PaleoSynthesis. As a person, she's been an important & dedicated part of the Paleontological Institute. All the best @thefairestfowl.bsky.social and stay connected!

Thank you for sharing your opinion. We are using AI in order not to get in conflict with copyrights anymore.

Grad students! Three more weeks to submit your Paleobiology Summer School application. Don’t forget!
We need your application & the letter of support by your supervisor. Questions or do you need assistance? Get in contact and we are happy to help.
More info: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/apw-apply/

🎄 Season’s greetings 🎄

2025 is coming to an end and the PaleoSynthesis team would like to thank for your contributions to the project. We hope that you stick with us and continue to support PaleoSynthesis.

🎅🏽 Happy Holidays 🎅🏽 and may 🎇 2026 🎆 be a good one for all of you!

On Saturday November 15, 2025 we will open the call to submit proposals for the Analytical Paleobiology School 2026 for grad students in Erlangen for a training in analytical methods. Do you want to join or send someone? More info and details: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/science-scho...

We warmly congratulate Wolfgang Kießling on his outstanding achievement in the Ranking of the Stanford List 2025. Wolfgang is ranked among the top 50 in his field!
This year’s ranking takes into account a total of 236,313 researchers. Visit: www.fau.eu/2025/09/news... for more details.

#FossilFriday A bonus fossil for #Halloween: the ghoulish ‘face’ of a sectioned Carboniferous brachiopod from a Winchester Cathedral gravestone.

Hello out there! A little reminder about our workshop call… No ideas of your own? Maybe you know a colleague you'd like to throw into the ring. So feel free to spread the word and the link: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/science-work...!

👏 Congratulations 👏 to the Big Questions team lead by Jansen A. Smith! After such a hard work the paper "Identifying the Big Questions in paleontology: a
community-driven project"is published in Paleobiology (doi.org/10.1017/pab.2025.10042)

Our homepage moved onto a new server, this also means that the design ist new. However, the domain stays same: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de It might need some cosmetics but we are here for you 😊 If you encounter any issues please get in contact!

Dear followers, our server is experiencing some issues. As a result, the website may be unavailable. If you would like information about the workshop, please email pal-synthesis@fau.de.

We are opening the last call for workshop proposals in 2025! Deadline is December 15, 2025. Visit the website with the necessary information before preparing a proposal. Questions? Contact Danijela Dimitrijevic (science) or Barbara Seuß (logistics) Info: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/sc...

Last day of the DeepIL workshop. So far a time full of inspiration, ideas, and a great exchange between colleagues from different disciplines and with different backgrounds. Intense but inspiring!

After a short break following the summer school, the program continues. Next week, the DeepIL (www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/de...) workshop will take place. Participants will mainly be scientists based in Germany. However, DeepIL also receives support from external research institutions.

🚨Registration open!🚨

Join us for the 4th Early Career Researcher Symposium of the International Fossil Coral and Reef Society (it’s online and free!) 🪸

📆 13th November 2025
⏰ 09:00–16:00 UTC
🔗 Register: fau.zoom-x.de/meeting/regi...

And just like that, they're over... Three weeks of summer school have flown by. Last lunch before everyone goes their separate ways. A BIG thank you to the entire team involved, all the lecturers, and the wonderful students! Stay motivated and positive!

What a great bunch of paleobiologists and soooo international!! the annual @paleosynth.bsky.social summer school. Such a pleasure to share methods with u all. Thanks @devapriya-chat.bsky.social @dralexdunhill.bsky.social @moriakiyasuhara.bsky.social & others for sending ur grad students over!

As for all the previous workshops we had an icon designed. DeepIL (www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/de...) will be the upcoming workshop in fall and the topic is “Deep-Time Impacts of Life on the Earth System”. And today we are happy to present the latest icon representing this workshop.

Group photo of this years Summer School students and some of the lecturers. All look still pretty fresh and motivated. It's halftime, lets see how it goes next!

This July, an international team of researchers, co-led by Professor Rachel Warnock, organised a “Taming the BEAST” workshop in Beijing, China. BEAST2 is a software package used to reconstruct evolutionary trees and is widely applied in diverse areas... more info: www.gzn.nat.fau.eu/2025/08/06/w...

Today is the kick-off of our summer school 2025. 12 smart and motivated students from all over the globe attend the course and hopefully take back home lots of knowledge and skills.

👋 Students welcome! Apply now for the 🎓 Bachelor’s and the Master’s degree programs 🎓 at GeoZentrum Nordbayern including Paleo! www.gzn.nat.fau.eu/2025/07/11/a...

BioDeeptime has made it into Science! "Climate is changing fast—and forests are 200 years behind". A sweeping new analysis of ancient pollen and modern data reveals this dramatic lag—and its consequences."(from ScienceDaily) - article: DOI: 10.1126/science.adr6700 CONGRATULATIONS to the authors.

Already announcing so you get to gather some ideas for your own workshop! Read more: www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/sc...

We invite applications for an Akademischer Rat auf Zeit in our research group, which focuses on Global Change Paleobiology. We seek a candidate with a strong background in palaeobiology aiming for an academic career in Paleontology. Interested!? www.gzn.nat.fau.eu/2025/06/16/s...

The deadline for the workshop call has expired. We will now sit down as a team and make a decision. We will inform you about the result as soon as possible! www.paleosynthesis.nat.fau.de/index.php/in...