GLOBAL CHANGE AND EXTINCTION IN THE OCEAN: A Paleontological Perspective

You can’t understand where the ocean is going without understanding where it’s been.

For more than half a billion years, the ocean - and the life within it - has changed together. Waters have warmed and cooled. Chemistry, climate, coastlines, and ecosystems have shifted, sometimes gradually and sometimes with startling speed.

Some species vanished. Others persisted through upheaval, extinction, and seas transformed beyond recognition. What’s the secret sauce to survival across deep time - and is there one?

The fossil record holds the clues.

This month at Ocean Hoptimism, we’re taking the long view to discover what Earth’s ancient ocean can teach us about the future of our own.

Professor Finnegan and his students study the fossil and geo-chemical record of marine life - from the first multicellular animals more than 500 million years ago to the traces of organisms accumulating in ocean sediments today.

By looking across this extraordinary span of time, they’re uncovering how changes in Earth’s physical environment have shaped marine biodiversity, and what those lessons might mean for the ocean we’re trying to protect today.

Because when we’re trying to imagine the ocean’s future, the past is one of our best guides.

Speaker: Dr. Seth Finnegan, UC Berkeley

Reserve a spot at weblink.