Project description
The End-Ordovician mass extinction was one of the most severe biodiversity crises in Earth’s history, dramatically reshaping marine ecosystems and triggering profound evolutionary change. Yet, despite its global significance, the precise timing, environmental drivers, and pathways of biological recovery remain incompletely understood—particularly in high-resolution regional records. Drill cores offer a unique window into these processes, preserving continuous, stratified archives of sedimentation, geochemistry, and fossil content that can capture the fine-scale dynamics of extinction and recovery. This project will draw on drill core material from the Geological Survey of New South Wales, providing access to well-documented subsurface records spanning this critical interval. The student (Masters) will investigate both sedimentological changes and fossil assemblages to reconstruct environmental shifts and biotic responses leading up to and over the extinction horizon using Australian material. Outcomes will contribute to a clearer understanding of how ecosystems collapse and recover, offering new insights into one of the most pivotal events in the history of life from an Australian perspective, and informing broader questions about resilience in the face of global change.
Note: You need to register interest in projects from different supervisors (not a number of projects with the one supervisor).
You must also contact each supervisor directly to discuss both the project details and your suitability to undertake the project.