Palaeobiology

Paleobiology is an interdisciplinary field of research that studies the Earth and how life on Earth has developed and adapted to changes in the environment and climate over long periods of time. We also investigate the biological and geological processes that have influenced and shaped the history of life on our planet. Paleobiologists seek answers to questions such as; How have different species evolved and disappeared over time? What factors have influenced these processes? How have changes in climate affected life on Earth and its evolutionary patterns?
Description
As far as we know, our Earth is the only planet in the universe where there is life. Humans represent only a fraction of all forms of life that have existed on our planet. At the Department of Earth Sciences, we strive to understand how life has evolved over millions of years and how it has adapted to constant changes in the environment and climate. We do this by combining traditional studies of fossils with modern biological methods. Of particular interest is the development of animals in connection with major biological events, especially what happened during the so-called Cambrian explosion – a short period more than 500 million years ago when we see a rapid increase in, among other things, shell-bearing animals. But it's not just the Cambrian explosion that attracts interest. The development of more modern animal groups in the middle of the Cretaceous period, as well as the major extinction event 65 million years ago when, among other things, dinosaurs became extinct, provides additional pieces to the puzzle of life's history and is part of our own development.
Microorganisms are found everywhere, from deep seas to high mountain peaks and even inside mountains themselves. Humans are in various ways completely dependent on these single-celled organisms, and they regulate much of our own existence, for example, by producing much of the oxygen we breathe or by breaking down and recycling organic material. At the Department of Earth Sciences, we try, among other things, to understand where these important organisms originated and how they have evolved in relation to the global climate. Our studies span several billion years of development, but particular emphasis is placed on the last 600 million years of evolution – from a time when virtually the entire Earth was covered in ice to the effects of more recent climate fluctuations.
Our Research
Early evolution of animals
Most of our understanding of Paleozoic animal life comes from preserved remains of hard parts, that is, shells and other mineralized parts of animals. By studying fossil remains from all over the world the focus is on investigating and reconstructing the relationships within and between important animal phyla, above all arthropods and brachiopods.
Shell-bearing organisms represent only a small part of the total diversity and therefore we also study non-mineralized remains in the form of organic small carbonaceous microfossils (and acritarchs). These types of microfossils preserve unique soft parts of animals, which are otherwise usually completely missing as fossils. With the help of these we can fill in some of the gaps in the early animal development.
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Genetic and molecular evolution of development
Here we focus on the investigation and comparison of embryonic gene expression patterns, i.e. the place and time when genes that steer development are active. We mainly work on the so-called panarthropods, represented by the well-known arthropods (e.g. flies, butterflies, shrimps, spiders, scorpions, centipedes and millipedes), but also the enigmatic tardigrades (water bears) and the onychophorans (velvet worms) but also priapulids, vermiform ecdysozoan critters that are known since the Cambrian era, and that may share key morphological features with the last common ancestor of Ecdysozoa as a whole.

Phytoplankton evolution
Marine phytoplankton, such as diatoms and coccolithophores, are small algae that play a crucial role in marine ecosystems and the global carbon cycle. These algae sequester large amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, just like trees and plants on land. Under current climate change, there are many questions of both scientific and societal interest: How will marine algae adapt to a much warmer world? How fast (or slow) will these adaptations occur? Will current species go extinct?
We can learn a lot about modern algae through field-based studies and laboratory experiments, but to understand the long-term effects of climate change and the evolution of phytoplankton, we need to look back in time and study how marine plankton communities have evolved on geological timescales. Scientific deep-sea drilling provides us access to a unique archive of microfossils and paleoclimate data from earlier periods of Earth's evolution. Deep-sea sediments store information about what the climate was like in the distant past, for example when only the southern hemisphere was glaciated and sea surface temperatures exceeded 28.5°C in the North Atlantic. Our research aims at understanding the dynamic interactions between climate change and marine phytoplankton across both short and long timescales, and relating this knowledge to changes in the global carbon cycle.

Biogeochemistry
Biogeochemistry explores the spatial and temporal changes in the natural environment driven by biological, geological, chemical, and physical processes. Life on Earth depends on nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, and trace elements, and their availability for life is determined by the natural processes that circulate them through the environment. Biogeochemistry and our research focus aims to understand these circulation patterns to comprehend how life originated, developed, and adapted to environmental changes over time. We also aim to understand the abiotic processes that circulate elements in the environment, such as weathering and depositional patterns, as well as tracers of sources and sinks of elements in nature. Biogeochemistry spans the entire globe and all timescales and is an important base for a fundamental understanding of elemental circulation on our planet.

PhD Studies
According to international evaluations, Uppsala University has some of the most comprehensive research in geosciences in Europe, and our doctoral students at Uppsala University are among the most satisfied with their doctoral education. We offer doctoral studies in eight research areas.
Read more about our PhD Studies.
Publications
Exceptionally Preserved Setae: A Possible Morphological Synapomorphy of Cambrian Lophotrochozoans
Part of Evolution & Development, 2025
- DOI for Exceptionally Preserved Setae: A Possible Morphological Synapomorphy of Cambrian Lophotrochozoans
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Palaeostomate Bryozoans from Glacial Erratics in the TvÀren Region, Sweden
Part of Minerals, 2025
Part of ICES Journal of Marine Science, p. 1137-1149, 2024
- DOI for Age validation of yellowfin and bigeye tuna using post-peak bomb radiocarbon dating confirms long lifespans in the western and central Pacific Ocean
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Part of Frontiers in Microbiology, 2024
- DOI for Catabolism and interactions of syntrophic propionate- and acetate oxidizing microorganisms under mesophilic, high-ammonia conditions
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Controls on Li partitioning and isotopic fractionation in inorganic calcite
Part of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, p. 91-102, 2024
- DOI for Controls on Li partitioning and isotopic fractionation in inorganic calcite
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Developmental and genomic insight into the origin of the tardigrade body plan
Part of Evolution & Development, 2024
- DOI for Developmental and genomic insight into the origin of the tardigrade body plan
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Part of Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark, p. 57-66, 2024
- DOI for Euendolith borings in Chancelloria and Nisusia from the middle Cambrian (Miaolingian) of North Greenland (Laurentia)
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Part of Grana, p. 3-15, 2024
- DOI for Evidence for saprotrophic digestion of glossopterid pollen from Permian silicified peats of Antarctica
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Part of eLIFE, 2024
- DOI for Evolution and diversity of biomineralized columnar architecture in early Cambrian phosphatic-shelled brachiopods
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Part of Gondwana Research, p. 126-141, 2024
- DOI for First multi-proxy chronostratigraphy of the lower Cambrian Byrd Group, Transantarctic Mountains and correlation within East Gondwana
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Helcionelloid molluscs from the lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) of southern Sweden
Part of Historical Biology, p. 1854-1882, 2024
- DOI for Helcionelloid molluscs from the lower Cambrian (Series 2, Stage 4) of southern Sweden
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Hox genes in spiders: Their significance for development and evolution
Part of Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology, p. 24-34, 2024
Impact of additives on syntrophic propionate and acetate enrichments under high-ammonia conditions
Part of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, 2024
- DOI for Impact of additives on syntrophic propionate and acetate enrichments under high-ammonia conditions
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Part of Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 2024
- DOI for Late Ordovician lingulid brachiopods from the Pingliang Formation (Shaanxi Province, North China): Morphological and ecological implications
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Part of Geology, p. 256-260, 2024
- DOI for Life in the Cambrian shallows: Exceptionally preserved arthropod and mollusk microfossils from the early Cambrian of Sweden
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Lithostratigraphy of the Portfjeld Group (Ediacaran - lowermost Cambrian) of North Greenland
Part of GEUS Bulletin, 2024
- DOI for Lithostratigraphy of the Portfjeld Group (Ediacaran - lowermost Cambrian) of North Greenland
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Multiple cis-regulatory elements control prox1a expression in distinct lymphatic vascular beds
Part of Development, 2024
New insights into mesoderm and endoderm development, and the nature of the onychophoran blastopore
Part of Frontiers in Zoology, 2024
- DOI for New insights into mesoderm and endoderm development, and the nature of the onychophoran blastopore
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Part of NPJ MATERIALS DEGRADATION, 2024
- DOI for Organic carbon source controlled microbial olivine dissolution in small-scale flow-through bioreactors, for CO2 removal
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Periostracum in Cambrian helcionelloid and rostroconch molluscs: comparison to modern taxa
Part of Lethaia, p. 1-17, 2024
- DOI for Periostracum in Cambrian helcionelloid and rostroconch molluscs: comparison to modern taxa
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Problematic tubular fossils from the Portfjeld Formation (Ediacaran) of North Greenland
Part of Journal of Paleontology, p. 221-231, 2024
- DOI for Problematic tubular fossils from the Portfjeld Formation (Ediacaran) of North Greenland
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Protocol for fluorescent live-cell staining of tardigrades
Part of STAR PROTOCOLS, 2024
- DOI for Protocol for fluorescent live-cell staining of tardigrades
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Simulating the Western North America heatwave of 2021 with analogue importance sampling
Part of Weather and Climate Extremes, 2024
- DOI for Simulating the Western North America heatwave of 2021 with analogue importance sampling
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Single-cell RNA sequencing of mid-to-late stage spider embryos: new insights into spider development
Part of BMC Genomics, 2024
- DOI for Single-cell RNA sequencing of mid-to-late stage spider embryos: new insights into spider development
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2024