T. Neville George Medal lecture. Populating Romer's Gap: rebuilding terrestrial ecosystems after the end-Devonian mass extinction

 

Professor Jenny Clack, Cambridge University

 

At the end of the Devonian, a mass extinction changed the faunal composition of terrestrial and freshwater faunas. The following 20 million years is a fossil-poor interval known as ‘Romer’s Gap’. This interval, the Carboniferous Tournaisian stage, saw the re-establishment of fully terrestrial ecosystems and the evolution of terrestrial tetrapods. Unfortunately, almost no fossils were known that could document these events. Now, for the first time anywhere, abundant fossils of tetrapods, arthropods, and fishes from this interval have been found – in Scotland. My talk introduces the finds and their significance, and the research planned to investigate this crucial stage in Earth history.