Life in the deep-sea has fascinated both scientists and the public for centuries, yet many evolutionary and biogeographic questions remain controversial. The biogeography of the deep-sea today has a historical basis for which the fossil record provides the most direct evidence.
With this project I aim to provide the first survey and analysis of the biogeographic evolution of deep-sea metazoans through the last 50 million years of Earth’s history on a global scale. The deep-sea methane-seep fauna provides an excellent model system for this purpose:
Based on new material from three key areas and using novel analytical approaches, I will focus on four main questions:
CNR-ISMAR, Bologna, Italy
Kiel S 2016. A biogeographic network reveals evolutionary links between deep sea hydrothermal vent and methane seep faunas. Proceedings of the Royal Society B (283): 20162337.
Kiel S & Hansen BT 2015. Cenozoic methane-seep faunas of the Caribbean region. PLoS ONE 10: e0140788.
Natalicchio M, Peckmann J, Birgel D & Kiel S. 2015, Seep deposits from northern Istria, Croatia: a first glimpse into the Eocene seep fauna of the Tethys region. Geological Magazine 152: 444–459.