Andrea Baucon

My research interests focus on the study of life-substrate interactions, both modern and fossil (ichnology). In my research, I addressed three main questions: (1) How do environmental perturbations modify burrowing behaviour? (2) How did animal behaviour change through time? (3) Do life-substrate interactions exist beyond Earth? I tackled these questions using quantitative methods (fractal analysis, network theory, geostatistics). I published in numerous peer-reviewed journals including Geology, Earth-Science Reviews, Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, Palaios and other leading academic journals. My scientific achievements include: • First review about organism-substrate interactions and astrobiology; • Development of a new quantitative method to reconstitute the depositional environment from trace fossils (ichnonetwork analysis); • Description of the first fossil locomotion trail left by stalked crinoids; • Establishment of 3 new species of trace fossils; • Demonstration that Leonardo da Vinci pioneered the study of trace fossils; • Establishment of a new era in the History of Ichnology (Age of Naturalists) As part of my work I co-organized Ichnia 2016, the 4th International Congress on Ichnology, which is renowned as the most important ichnological congress. I instructed students of the Universities of Trieste, Milan, Modena, Genova and Pavia across a wide range of ichnological subjects, including ichnofacies, ichnofabrics and reconstruction of sedimentary environments. My teaching responsibilities included a lecture on quantitative ichnology at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (Trieste). I realized several national and international exhibitions for bringing ichnology to the general public and promoting geological heritage. Currently my research focuses on the application of burrows – modern and fossil – for the reconstitution of past depositional environments.