Areas of Expertise
- Evolution of terrestrial plants and peat-forming environments
- Paleoecology and taphonomy
- Extinctions & recovery
- Sedimentology and Stratigraphy
- Deep Time climate proxies
Professor Gastaldo is a paleontologist and sedimentologist whose focus is on terrestrial ecosystems ranging from: the earliest colonization of land by plants in the Devonian; through the Carboniferous, during which time our largest coal reserves accumulated under glacial and interglacial conditions akin to today; to the effects of Mass Extinction on ecosystems at the Permian-Triassic Boundary; and with the processes responsible for preservation of fossil assemblages from the earliest stratigraphic records into the Neogene using actualistic studies in modern environments.
Research Interests:
- Permian Triassic Boundary: South Africa
- Permian Triassic Boundary: Bogda Mountains, China
- Early Devonian Wetlands
Professor Gastaldo’s research focuses on several key paleontological and sedimentological questions. These include: (1) the nature of the terrestrial fossil record over deep time; (2) the taphonomic processes (death, decay, disarticulation) involved in preserving the biosphere in the sedimentary record; (3) the nature of coal and coal-bearing systems; and (4) how fossil assemblages are used to understand ecosystem stability, perturbation (short- and long-term disturbance), turnover, extinction, and replacement.
