Sapienza Research Calls - GEO01

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Letizia DI BELLA
TITLE: La risposta adattativa delle faune bentoniche in ambienti estremi attuali e fossili
FUNDING AGENCY: Ministero dell’istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, Progetto di Ateneo medio 2019 

START DATE: 2019
END DATE: 2022
ABSTRACT: 
The project aims at the adaptative response of the micro- and macrobenthic community (foraminifera, crinoids) to recent and past extremes environments to perform adaptative patterns and possible future scenarios.  Mediterranean basin provides a wide variety of these environments which are always related to different sedimentary/geological processes: areas affected by hydrothermal vents (Eolian arc, Pontine archipelago) areas characterized by strong sedimentary processes (southern Tyrrhenian Sea), submarine caves (Sardinia, Spain). These areas represent natural laboratory where it is possible to study ocean acidification, warming and eutrophication trends. As regard the fossil record, some study cases related to 
a time interval ranging from Giurassic and Miocene were considered. Particularly, the adaptative responses to the Messinian salinity crises (Late Miocene) and to confined sites of the carbonate shelf of the Carso area (Padriciano) of Danian and Early Ypresian will be studied. Following a multidisciplinary approach, successfully adopted by Micropaleontological and Marine Geology researchers from Earth Scinces Department of Sapienza Rome University, in collaboration with CNR-IGAG, the data results will implement the Mediterranean database and will represent a useful proxy for the paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the fossil record. 

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: Marco ROMANO
TITLE: A multidisciplinary approach to the study of tetrapod footprints: the Gardetta Plateau (Briançonnais, Western Alps, Italy) and Sezze (Latium, Central Italy) case studies
FUNDING AGENCY: Sapienza Università di Roma, Bando Ateneo 2020 

START DATE: 2020
END DATE: 2022
ABSTRACT:
In recent decades, vertebrate ichnology has passed from a mere corollary to the study of body fossils, to an autonomous discipline in constant development. When compared with other branches of palaeontology, and in particular with the classic study of body fossils, ichnology is able to provide a ‘vivid’ and unique image of the organisms that have left their traces, generating a rich variety of inferences such as the behaviour and various other aspects of trackmaker biology and physiology. Several features of extant tetrapod general biology, including for example static and dynamic posture, biomechanics of locomotion, social behaviour, and related inferences about metabolism and general physiology, have been deepened and better understood by ichnological studies. Tetrapod footprints represent a crucial source of evidence also in the field of paleobiogeographic reconstruction, leading to conspicuous reviews of long-standing geodynamic interpretations. In the present research project we propose a multidisciplinary approach, capable of integrating geological and ichnological classical study techniques with new cutting-edge methodologies, also through the implementation of new digital techniques and software. This approach will be applied to two case studies, represented by the Sezze ichnosite (Latium, Central Italy) and the Gardetta Plateau ichnosite (Piedmont, Western Alps, Italy), and will potentially allow to make important inferences about: i) type of track producers; ii) sedimentary environment and mechanisms of footprint formation and preservation (ecological and paleoclimatic aspects); iii) reconstruction of a complex locomotor cycle in trackmakers, recognized starting from the differential depth of the tracks; iv) paleobiogeographical inferences on a regional scale based on the new occurrences indicated by the footprints, and their impact on the accepted geodynamic models.

 

 

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