Postdoctoral Researcher position open

May 2024  

Project title. The causes and consequences of deep-time land ecosystem collapse.

Project description. The successful candidate will explore the ecologic and climatic signatures of a major mass extinction event. Data collection will be conducted both in the field and in the lab, and will focus on: 1, plant micro- and mesofossils; and 2, geochemical proxies of past climate change. Building upon previously collected fossil and geochemical data sets, this project will form an integral part of a growing research collaboration between Ireland, Australia, Sweden, France and the USA.

Application deadline: 12:00 noon (Irish Local Time) on Friday June 21st, 2024. Applications must be submitted online via the University College Cork vacancy portal (https://ore.ucc.ie/; search for job number 077271). 

For full details of the role, see job listing on EURAXESS: https://euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/236660

An evening of fossil fun to bid farewell to MEG’s first volunteer cohort

May 2024 

The Mass Extinction Group launched their first “Fossil Friday” event as a send-off celebration for their volunteer fossil preparators. The first cohort of the Fossils for our Future programme consisted of 33 keen volunteers. During the 15 weeks of the first session, a new lab was established, new fossil preparation protocols were written, and over 2,700 individual fossils were prepared. But, perhaps the most important outcomes were the friendships and connections made daily. MEG is proud to have brought together a new community of like-minded, palaeo-passionate people in Cork. 

For more on the event:  

https://x.com/palaeomays/status/1789266280928645428 

https://x.com/CorkCoast/status/1789296325328277932  

For more on the programme: 

Fossils for our Future

Fossils for our Future at the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival

April 2024 

Fossils for our future is excited to be part of the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival! Come prepare fossils and learn more about this citizen science programme on Monday April 15^th form 13:00-16:00 at the Cork City Public Library. 

Check out this and other CLLF events at: Cork Lifelong Learning Festival

Fossils for our Future welcomes palaeontology citizen scientists

February 2024 

Fossils for our Future, our programme for adult citizen scientists, has opened its doors to the Spring 2024 volunteer cohort. Thirty-three volunteers, united in their passion for science, are curating, photographing, and preparing fossils for MEG research. Through their efforts, these volunteers will help MEG investigate end-Permian mass extinction event and its relevance to today’s climate crisis.

Read more at UCC News 

For more programme information and to sign up, go to Fossils for our Future

Research trip to California to blast fossil & modern plants with X-rays

December 2023 

MEG members visited the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) in California, USA, to analyze the heavy metal contents in modern and fossil leaves. This approach may show how plants of the deep past survived times of heavy metal contamination in the air and soils. SSRL uses bright x-rays to answer these and many other research questions. After zapping their specimens, MEG has gained some exciting data and a powerful new tool to investigate mass extinctions through time.

Dissolving fossils at the Swedish Museum of Natural History

November 2023  

Chris and Holly-Anne visited the Swedish Museum of Natural History (NRM) in snowy Stockholm to photograph the Australian plant fossil collections housed there. Holly-Anne gathered leaf fossil images to look for evidence of plant-insect interactions, including various styles of leaf-eating and egg-laying. Holly-Anne’s Co-supervisor, Prof. Steve McLoughlin (NRM), demonstrated the use of strong hydrofluoric acid to dissolve rocks and extract the fossils inside. The Mass Extinction Group will apply this technique to the plant fossils collected from the Sydney Basin. 

For more on MEG's research: Research  

To learn more about Prof. McLoughlin's work: Stephen McLoughlin - Naturhistoriska riksmuseet (nrm.se)

Chemical fingerprinting of fossil-rich rock samples at UConn, USA

November 2023 

Marcos visited the University of Connecticut (UConn) in the USA to analyse hundreds of rock samples from the Sydney Basin using X-rays. This technique provides a unique “chemical fingerprint” for each rock, offering insights into the climate conditions present at the time when the rocks—and the fossils they contained—formed. 

For more information on the facility, see: https://earthsciences.uconn.edu/

New Sydney Basin findings presented at the Palaeontological Association conference, Cambridge, UK

September 2023 

At this year’s annual meeting of the Palaeontological Association in Cambridge, UK, one of our MEG members had the opportunity to present his groundbreaking research findings. Marcos shared new Early Triassic plant and geochemical discoveries, shedding light on a period in Earth's history when temperatures were up to 12°C higher than today. 

For more on the conference: https://www.palass.org/

Field work investigating the end-Permian extinction and Triassic recovery in the Sydney Basin

August 2023 

Chris and Holly-Anne, together with Profs Steve McLoughlin (Swedish Museum of Natural History) and Christopher Fielding (University of Connecticut), revisited the Sydney Basin for a data collection trip. They collected post-extinction plant fossils in the field and photographed the Triassic collections at the Australian Museum and the Londonderry Core Library. They were able to gather additional data for their research projects and loads of extra plant fossil material for the Fossils for our Future programme. 

For more on MEG research:  Research 

Collections visited: https://australian.museum/learn/collections/ and WB Clarke Geoscience Centre - Londonderry core library 

To learn more about Prof. McLoughlin’s work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Stephen-Mcloughlin-4 

To learn more about Prof. Fielding’s work: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher-Fielding-2 

Holly-Anne’s publication outlines leaf arrangement in a 407 million-year-old fossil plant

June 2023 

Before beginning her PhD with MEG, Holly-Anne was investigating the leaf arrangement of one of the earliest land plants as part of the Molecular Palaeobotany and Evolution Group at the University of Edinburgh. As primary author of this paper, she digitally reconstructed fossilised stems of an Early Devonian club moss. She discovered that, unlike most plants alive today, this plant organised its leaves in a type of spiral that does not follow the Fibonacci sequence, challenging previous assumptions about conservation of this growth pattern in plant evolution.

To read her publication: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adg4014 

To read a summary of her findings: https://theconversation.com/how-a-400-million-year-old-fossil-changes-our-understanding-of-mathematical-patterns-in-nature-207552

Cork Carnival of Science interactive fossil exhibit

June 2023 

The Cork Carnival of Science is an annual festival celebrating science and learning with family-friendly events and activities for folks across southern Ireland. MEG member, Holly-Anne, and the Cork Palaeo group chatted with visitors to Ireland’s Fossil Heritage tent about fossils from Ireland and around the world and learned about fossilisation and extinction through interactive exhibits. Special thanks to Maria McNamara and her Ireland’s Fossil Heritage team! 

To learn more about Ireland’s Fossil Heritage: https://www.ucc.ie/en/fossil-heritage/

To learn more about the Carnival of Science: https://www.corkcity.ie/en/cork-carnival-of-science/

Fossils for our Future at the Cork Lifelong Learning Festival 2023

February 2023 

The Cork Lifelong Learning Festival is an annual celebration of learning for people of all ages, interests, and abilities. Hosted by the Frank O’Connor Library in Mayfield, Chris, Holly-Anne, and Marcos talked with visitors about the launch of the Fossils for our Future citizen science programme, where volunteers assist the Mass Extinction Group with fossil preparation and analysis. The MEG team’s palaeo passion was infectious, with several of the visitors signing up for the Fossils for our Future programme.

To learn more about Fossils for our Future: Fossils for our Future

The Mass Extinction Group on the trail of the biggest extinction of all

December 2022 

Holly-Anne, Marcos and Chris—along with other key members of the Cork Palaeo Group (Maria, Valentina and Aaron)—undertake their first field sample collection trip. They were on the trail of the worst extinction event in Earth’s history: the end-Permian event (252 million years ago). Luckily, it wasn’t hard to find. It’s exactly where you would expect to find fossils, but find none at all: a sign of bad times!

Lots of museum photography (Holly-Anne), core sampling (Marcos) and field sampling (everyone). Together, they collected enough data for everyone’s projects, and plenty of material for our Fossils for our Future volunteer preparation team. 

To find out more about MEG research, visit: Research

500 million years of Earth’s climate evolution with Cork Culture Night

September 2022 

Culture Night is an annual celebration of arts and culture held across Ireland. At UCC BEES, Chris and Holly-Anne explored how fossils can tell us about past & future environment changes. The Cork Culture Night visitors witnessed 500 million years of climate evolution recorded by fossil plants and animals, discussed the importance of carbon sinks, like the peat bogs found across Ireland, and practised evading extinction by playing the Wheel of Misfortune (on loan from Ireland’s Fossil Heritage)! 

Find out more at: https://twitter.com/holly_anne__/status/1573347435870654467