Trial Lecture
Title: "Coevolution of Climate and Ecosystems"
Time and place: Jan. 10, 2025, 10:15 AM, Tøyen Hovedgård
Public Defence
Adjudication Committee
- Researcher, Dr. William Foster, Institute for Geology, Universität Hamburg
- Researcher, Dr. Krzysztof Hryniewicz, Institute of Paleobiology, Polish Academy of Science
- Professor Axel Müller, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
- Research Director and Professor Hugo de Boer, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Øyvind Hammer, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
- Professor Jørn Hurum, Natural History Museum, University of Oslo
- Professor Atle Mørk, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Summary
The Middle Triassic took place 247.2– ~237 million years ago and was a time of ecological diversification in marine environments. It followed five million years after the end-Permian Mass Extinction, during which as much as 90% of marine life became extinct. This thesis investigates Middle Triassic marine sediments, focusing on the ecology, benthic fauna, and fossil preservation in the northern Boreal Sea. Today, the fossilised seabed crops out across the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard. Despite its position between other fossil-rich sites, the Boreal Sea is palaeontologically understudied.
The candidate applied a multidisciplinary approach to better understand the Middle Triassic in Svalbard. The three main papers form a comprehensive overview and build on one another. Paper 1 examines the fluctuating oxygen levels and investigates the characteristic bivalve beds, while Paper 2 explores ichthyosaur taphonomy and taxonomy. Paper 3 takes a regional perspective with more localities, describing new chemostratigraphic markers, reviewing geochemical proxies, and benthic fossils. By integrating sedimentological, palaeontological, and geochemical data, the thesis offers new insights into the faunal and environmental evolution of the Middle Triassic in Svalbard, focusing on the Botneheia Formation.
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