Research

Keywords

• Palaeontology: taxonomy, systematics and palaeoecology of Palaeozoic arthropods.
• Taphonomy of well-preserved fossils: authigenic mineralization of soft-tissues, depositional environments and rare earth element geochemistry, taphonomic biases.
• Development of advanced 2D and 3D imaging techniques: synchrotron X-ray fluorescence, absorption, diffraction and scattering scanning, semi-quantitative micro-tomography, ultraviolet-visible infrared reflectance & luminescence imaging.
• Field work: fossil collection and stratigraphical study.

Projects

Ongoing

• Belgian Science Policy Office, “BRAIN-be 2.0 Research Program” project: To colour or not to colour: COLOUR patterns and pigments in INvertebrates from the PALAEOzoic of Belgium (Co-coordinator, with B. Mottequin (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Bruxelles, Belgium)).
• Belgian Science Policy Office, “BRAIN-be 2.0 Research Program” project: Deciphering early stages of VERTebrate evolution: insights from long IGnored Belgian Devonian fossil Organism (Co-coordinator, with B. Mottequin (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Bruxelles, Belgium)).
• The Paris Biota (Bear Lake County, Idaho, USA): an exceptional window on the Early Triassic marine life.

Past

• Swiss National Science Foundation Spark project: Breathing new life into dead fossils: Can geochemical characterization of biomolecules be used to enhance paleontological anatomy descriptions and reveal the affinities of enigmatic fossil animals? (PI: Pierre Gueriau).
• Swiss National Science Foundation project: Arthropod Evolution during the Ordovician Radiation: Insights from the Fezouata Biota (PI: Allison C. Daley).
• France-Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies collaborative project: X-Ray Imaging of Cultural Heritage – Bringing to Light our History (Collaboration with U. Bergmann (SLAC, Stanford University) and L. Bertrand (IPANEMA)).
• ANR TERRES: Perspectives globales sur le processus de Terrestrialisation.

 

Reviewing activity

For international journals

• Multidisciplinary journals: PNAS, Scientific Reports, PLoS ONE, PeerJ, Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, Royal Society Open Science. The Science of Nature.
• Earth Sciences and Palaeontology journals: Geology, Earth-Science Reviews, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh, Proceedings of the Geologists’ Association, , Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, Alcheringa, Journal of Paleontology.
• Zoology journals: Zoological Letters.
• Physics and Chemistry journals: Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry.

Others

• Synchrotron proposals (SSRL) and regional funding proposals (Ile-de-France, DIM MAP).