Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism

Dr. Kenneth De Baets is a paleobiologist at the Geozentrum Nordbayern in the faculty of Natural Sciences at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nurnberg. He graduated from Ghent University with a Masters in Geology and earned his PhD in Evolutionary Biology at the University of Zürich.  His main research focuses on documenting and interpreting the relative contributions of abiotic (e.g., climate) and biotic factors (e.g., parasitism) in driving large-scale patterns in the evolution of life and biomineralization.Dr. John Huntley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Missouri. He graduated from Appalachian State University with a Bachelors of Science in Geology in 2000, then earned his Masters in Geology at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington in 2003, and his PhD in Geosciences at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2007. His main research interests include the fossil record of biotic interactions, stratigraphic and conservation paleobiology, and the evolution of morphological disparity.

• Chapter 1. The fossil record of parasitism: Its extent and taphonomic constraints.- Chapter 2. Importance of data on fossil symbioses for parasite-host evolution.- Chapter 3. Biodiversity and host-parasite (co)extinction.- Chapter 4. Evolutionary history of colonial organisms as hosts and parasites.- Chapter 5. Crustaceans as hosts of parasites throughout the Phanerozoic.- Chapter 6. Trilobites as hosts for parasites: From paleopathologies to ethiologies.- Chapter 7. Evolutionary history of cephalopod pathologies linked with parasitism.- Chapter 8. Bivalve Mollusks as Hosts in the Fossil Record.- Chapter 9. Parasitism of Paleozoic Crinoids and Related Stalked Echinoderms: Paleopathology, Ichnology, Co-Evolution, and Evolutionary Paleoecology.- Chapter 10. Deep origin of parasitic disease in vertebrates.- Chapter 11. Gastrointestinal parasites of ancient non-human vertebrates: Evidence from coprolites and other materials.- Chapter 12. Blood to Molecules: The Fossil Record of Blood and its Constituents.- Chapter 13. The Molecular Clock as a Tool for Understanding Host-Parasite Evolution.- Chapter 14. Horizontal Transfer of Transposons as Genomic Fossils of Host-Parasite Interactions.