Colloquium: Dr. Maria Rose Petrizzo - How can microfossils help to decipher environments, climates, and Earth’s History over the last 140 Ma?

Dr. Maria Rose Petrizzo - 2025 GSA Distinguished International Lectureship University of Milan Topic: How can microfossils help to decipher environments, climates, and Earth’s History over the last 140 Ma? Academic Host: Pam Stephens Abstract: Planktonic foraminifera are heterotrophic, unicellular protists that secrete calcite shells typically less than a millimeter in diameter and inhabit the upper water column of the open ocean. Owing to their rapid evolutionary rates, widespread distribution, high preservation potential, and abundance in pelagic and hemipelagic sediments, they represent one of the most powerful microfossil groups for biostratigraphy, biochronology, paleoceanography, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction since the Cretaceous (~143 Ma). Planktonic foraminifera first appeared in the Early Jurassic within the Tethyan Bioprovince and diversified markedly from the Early Cretaceous onward. Biogeographic provinces broadly comparable to those of the modern oceans can be reco...