PALAEONTOLOGY[online]

Tag: Alex G. Liu

Alex is a Research Fellow and palaeobiologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. His research sometimes includes work on fossil elephants and dinosaurs, but mainly focuses on the Ediacaran period, and particularly aspects of Ediacaran palaeobiology, preservation and stratigraphy. He has always been interested in fossils and evolution, but was attracted to the Precambrian because there are so many big, unanswered evolutionary questions. Working on them is proving to be an exciting and enjoyable challenge for Alex.

Contact Details:

Dr. Alex G. Liu, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge, CB2 3EQ, UK.

by Frances S. Dunn*1 and Alex G. Liu2 Introduction: The Ediacaran period, from 635 million to 541 million years ago, was a time of immense geological and evolutionary change. It witnessed the transition out of an ice-house climate, the break-up of one supercontinent (Rodinia) and the assembly of another (Gondwana), a major meteorite impact (the Acraman event) and unprecedented shifts in global ocean chemistry that included a significant rise in oxygen concentrations (Fig. 1A). Rocks from the Ediacaran also record the appearance of a diverse (species-rich) group of large, morphologically complex lifeforms: the Ediacaran biota. These organisms were globally abundant from about 571 million to 541 million years ago. To our modern eyes, many Ediacaran fossils look strange and unfamiliar, and th...