Sessions > Symposium B: Reading time and Life on Earth

Session B1: Integrated stratigraphy from Milanković to Million-year timescales

This session is aimed at research concerning cyclo-, bio-, chemo-, and chronostratigraphy,with a special focus on integrated stratigraphic approaches across Milanković to Myrtimescales. This includes both stratigraphy-forward (e.g., synthesis of regional stratigraphic frameworks, establishing absolute durations for stages, resolving challenging time-intervals) and paleoenvironment-forward research (e.g., placing climatic changes into a stratigraphiccontext or assessing the duration of mass extinctions).

Session B2: Life and Bioevents during Devonian time

During the Devonian, the continental landmass grew. This led to the spread of many groups of organisms on land, including vascular plants, arthropods (including hexapods) and first tetrapods. As a result, new terrestrial ecosystems developed in the Middle and Late Devonian. The Devonian was a period of enormous carbonate production with a peak in reef growth. It is also characterised by the greatest diversity of marine fauna in the entire Paleozoic, and, by a large number of major faunal changes (bioevents including extinctions). In this session we welcome presentations of studies and results on Devonian biota from different paleoenvironments, showing in particular its response to biotic crises. The session is also open to various other Devonian topics.

Session B3: Stratigrahic subdivision of the Carboniferous and its paleontological content

The stratigraphic division of the Carboniferous and the definition of the remaining GSSPS remains a major challenge for the Carboniferous Community, which is partly rooted in the strong climatic gradients and paleogeographical barriers characterising Carboniferous times. The Carboniferous biospheres has experienced major changes and crises, but also times of major rediversification, adaptations to changing environments and major innovations, especially in the continental realm. This session welcomes stratigraphic and paleontological contributions in the broadest sense, which addresses the Carboniferous biosphere and the division of time.

Session B4: Permian biota and stratigraphy

The Permian Period is characterised by major geological, climatic and biological events. Almost all continual masses are united in a single supercontinent, Pangea. The Permian sees the end of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age and its transition into the hote late Permian climate. The Permian biota had to adapt to this constantly changing world with often high ecological pressure. All this cumulated in the end-Permian biological mass extinction, which wiped out large parts of the marine and continental biota. This session welcomes stratigraphic and paleontological studies, which addresses the evolution of the Permian biosphere and/or approaches to divide the Permian Period.

Session B5: Co-evolution of life and environments under high-resolution Pennsylvanian time scale

Various geologic and biotic events happened during the Pennsylvanian in both marine and terrestrial realms. Stratigraphic successions with variable completeness are preserved across the globe. The Paleo-Tethyan regions, in particular, have the most complete record of sedimentary sequences and fossil successions, which can provide a high potential to recover both biotic events and environmental changes under a high-resolution time scale. Here we call this session to offer a platform for specialists presenting their studies on biodiversity, and bio-, chrono-, and chemo-stratigraphy, sedimentology, and geochemistry of the Pennsylvanian in the Paleo-Tethyan region and elsewhere, and discussing the timing, tempo, and mechanism of the environmental and biological events during the Pennsylvanian, locally and globally.

Session B6: Correlation of late Carboniferous to early Triassic continental deposits to the marine chronostratigraphic scale - progress and future tasks

Continental deposits and basins are important archives of late Carboniferous to early Triassic times. Establishing precise stratigraphic divisions and correlations over larger distances has been and is still a challenge, although major progress has been made in various regions over the last decades. This is especially true in the regions, where a multitude of different stratigraphic methods have been successfully applied, and resulted in surprisingly precise scales. Despite these recent advances, the correlation into the marine realm and especially to the chronostratigraphic units remains a matter of debate. The aim of the session is to present the recent progress but also to identify further tasks and research directions.