Lecture: "Devonian biogeography and global correlation: reclaiming Gondwana"

Elizabeth M. Dowding is an Australian palaeontologist working on the biogeography of the Devonian. Her research focusses on characterising areas and establishing hierarchical frameworks for their interrelationships. This work provides blended biotic and abiotic area history’s and a structured format for studying biotic events. Dowding studied for her PhD on Bedegal land at the University of New South Wales, Australia. Dowding is currently working with the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics at the University of Oslo, Norway.

Cameron Penn-Clarke is a scientist at the Council for Geoscience and an Honorary Research Associate at the Evolutionary Studies Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. He has broad research interests that are focused on the evolution and correlation of Palaeozoic-aged basins of Gondwana and their faunas, particularly brachiopods. Currently, his research is focused on unravelling correlative feedback loops between past environmental shifts and changes in biodiversity during the Devonian of South Africa; exploring whether these resultant biocrises are related to Gondwanide or global events. Further to this, he has interests in historical geology, especially from the perspective of pre- and early colonial societies in Africa and the promotion of geoheritage in South Africa.

Colloquium: “Calibrating the Devonian in South America”

She is a geologist specialized in stratigraphy and biostratigraphy, with a master's degree in invertebrate paleontology (Univ. Claude Bernard, Lyon I, France) and a PhD in Geological Sciences, with a thesis in Devonian Paleoecology of bivalve fauna from the Central Andes of Bolivia (Córdoba, Argentina).

Colloquium: “Calibrating the Devonian in South America”

Professor and Researcher at UNIRIO, Doctorate and Master's Degree in Geology at UFRJ, having experiences in the interfaces of Arts with Geosciences, Natural Sciences and Museology through Geopoetics, Invertebrate Taphonomy, Tafacies Characterization, Paleoart and paleoenvironmental reconstitution. Corresponding member of Brazil in the International Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy associated with ICM - International Commission on Stratigraphy. He is part of the project team PALEOANTAR -Paleobiology and Paleogeography of South Gondwana: interrelationships between Antarctica and South America, participating in the collection and research of fossils found on James Ross Island, in the Antarctic Peninsula, in order to establish the relationships between biota and South America.

Lecture: “Latest Silurian – Mid-Devonian brachiopod faunas from the Rhenish Massif (Germany): evolution, palaeoecology and palaeobiogeography.

Palaeontologist and geologist at Senckenberg Research Institute and Museum of Natural History (Frankfurt am Main, Germany). Specialist in Palaeozoic brachiopods and stratigraphy, curator since 1997 (section Palaeozoology III). Studies in Geology and Palaeontology at the universities Kiel and Marburg a.d. Lahn (Germany) from 1987 to 1994, Diploma in 1994, Ph.D. in 1997. The thesis “Morphology, Taxonomy and Phylogeny of Lower Devonian brachiopods from the Dra Plains (Morocco) and the Rhenish Massif (Germany)” has been awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Memorial Award (2001). Field works in many countries, such as Morocco, China, Turkey, USA, and Germany. International projects on Palaeozoic brachiopods and a collection digitization project. Supervision of several master and Ph.D. theses. Research stays at museums in the USA. Presently Secretary of Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy and chairman of German Subcommission on Devonian Stratigraphy. 2015–2018 official representative of Senckenberg in the EU Program “BASELiNE Earth: Brachiopods As SEnsitive tracers of gLobal mariNe Environment” (Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions in Horizon 2020). Since 2005 teacher in geology and palaeontology at Senckenberg School for technical assistants.