GSA SA Div Talk “When Life Got Hard..." Prof Alan ‘Jay’ Kaufman

GSA SA Division Science Talk #2: “When Life Got Hard: An Environmental Driver for the Origin of Seashells” | Prof. Alan ‘Jay’ Kaufman.

Monday 16th May 2022 (arrive at 5:30 pm for a 6 pm start).

The GSA SA Division would like to invite GSA members and guests to our second science talk for this year to be given by Prof. Alan ‘Jay’ Kaufman. Kaufman will discuss recent discoveries of biomineralised animals in middle Ediacaran aged carbonates from Namibia and Siberia associated with the Shuram Excursion, and hypothesize about the driving forces for biomineralisation and animal evolution.

Prof. Alan ‘Jay’ Kaufman is a Geobiologist at the University of Maryland who studies the co-evolution of life and environment. Through field and laboratory studies of the stratigraphy, palaeontology, and geochemistry of sedimentary rocks that accumulated across the most significant transitions in early Earth history, Kaufman's integrated research has shed light on:

• The Great Oxidation Event (when atmospheric oxygen rose dramatically some 2.3 billion years ago) and its biological consequences;

• The extremes of climatic and environmental change associated with episodic Snowball Earth ice ages at both ends of the Proterozoic Eon;

• The Ediacaran Period evolution of macroscopic life in the aftermath of the greatest recorded perturbation of the carbon cycle; and

• The Cambrian Explosion of Animals.

Kaufman's research has carried him to faraway places with strange sounding names, including Namibia, Siberia, Oman, and Australia where his Fulbright Global Scholar award will support his discovery of the earliest sea shells and their first appearance in the immediate aftermath of dramatic environmental changes in the world oceans over 570 million years ago.

Where: Mawson Lecture Theatre, The University of Adelaide and online via Zoom.

Zoom link: https://adelaide.zoom.us/j/83443061383?pwd=cEZCN2dqRlJIRmoyWk1ic28rNkRBQT09

Passcode: Ediacaran

Start: Monday 16th May 2022 (arrive at 5:30 pm for a 6 pm start). Optional dinner afterwards (booking for 7:30 pm) at own cost.

Cost: Free for members and guests.

Optional dinner at The Exeter afterward (booking for 7:30 pm) at own cost (please indicate in your registration if you would like to join us for dinner).

The Geological Society of Australia (GSA) represents all Earth Science disciplines. The mission of the GSA is to promote and advance Earth Science. If you’re not a member and would be interested in joining, please see the following link for more information.

Please note that this event will be COVID-19 dependant. All COVID-19 precautionary measures will be in place, with all government restrictions adhered to. Please see the for the most up to date information.

Host or Publisher Geological Society of Australia (SA Division)