Stephen McLoughlin

Professor. Senior Curator.

Contact

Phone: +46 (0)73 340 2362
E-mail: steve.mcloughlin@nrm.se

Billing and Mailing Address:

See the Staff and Contacts page.

Education

BSc (Hons) University of Queensland, Australia, 1986

PhD University of Queensland, Australia, 1990

Responsibilities

I am responsible for curation of the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic plant fossil collections in the Department of Paleobiology, NRM. I supervise visiting researchers, students and postdoctoral fellows working on Palaeozoic and Mesozoic palaeobotany. I am co-responsible for managing the department’s lapidary and photographic laboratories and maintaining the DiVA publications database.

Research Interests

I am interested in multiple aspects of the development of plant life on Earth. I investigate the evolution of novel plant architectures, the application of fossil plants to biostratigraphy, patterns of plant extinction, and floristic responses to environmental change through the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. This broad interval spans many of the pivotal developments in plant life on Earth.

I am interested in employing novel techniques to examine exceptionally well preserved (permineralized, opalized, or otherwise three-dimensionally preserved) fossils to elucidate the evolutionary history of lesser-studied groups, such as fungi, water moulds, primitive fern groups and Southern Hemisphere seed ferns.

I am also interested in investigating the evolution of plant-animal interactions through the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. Integrated investigations of adpression floras, charcoalified mesofossil assemblages, and three-dimensionally entombed permineralized peat and sinter deposits offer broad scope for documenting the complex development of plant-animal-fungal interactions through deep time.

I have further interests in understanding the floristic turnover through the Permian and Triassic—a time during which Earth transitioned from icehouse to intense hothouse conditions and experienced perhaps its greatest mass-extinction event.

My research is supported by the Swedish Research council (Vetenskapsrådet: VR), and by the National Science Foundation (USA).

Projects

Project I. Exceptional permineralized biotas – windows into the evolution and functional diversity of terrestrial ecosystems through time

Project II. Causes and effects of the Permian-Triassic biotic crisis inferred from continental margin sections and modeling

Project III. Mesozoic mass extinction events and perturbations in the carbon cycle

Project IV. The lost clades – extinct Bennettitales and Nilssoniales as key to understanding the origin and evolution of gymnosperms and angiosperms

Other Professional Roles

• Chief Editor for Alcheringa (2006–2016); Honorary Editor (2016–present)
• Editorial board member for Cretaceous Research (1998–present)
• Editorial board member for Australasian Palaeontological Memoirs (2006–present)
• Editorial board member for Palaeontographica abteilung B (2013–present)
• Editorial board member for Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology (2015–present)
• Palaeobotany Section Editor for Australian Systematic Botany (2016–present)
• Guest Editor for Gondwana Research (2015)
• Member of the Nomenclature Committee for Fossil Plants under the auspices of the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (2011–present)
• Member of the Executive Committee of the Geological Society of Australia (Queensland Division) (2006–2007).
• I have over 1900 contact hours of undergraduate teaching experience at the Queensland University of Technology, University of Melbourne and University of Western Australia (Australia), and Lund University (Sweden). I have been the primary or co-supervisor for six PhD projects.