Michael Montenari

Biography

I was appointed lecturer in Palaeontology in 2005. I studied Geology and Palaeontology at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg (Germany), the Université-Louis-Pasteur in Strasbourg (France), the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität in Erlangen/Nürnberg (Germany) and the University of California, Los Angeles (USA). I obtained a degree as Diplom-Geologe (MSc) with a study on the Micropalaeontology and Sedimentology of Lower Carboniferous calciclastic turbidites of the Vosges Mountains (France) in 1996, and a PhD degree (Dr. rer. nat.) in Earth Sciences with a study on the Palynology, Stratigraphy and Geochemistry of the metasedimentary units of the Black Forest Massif (Germany) in 1999. After a brief but very intensive life in the oil industry, I held PostDoc positions at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS, Centre for Palaeozoic Palaeontology and Palaeogeography, Université de Lille) and the University of Tübingen (Germany) where I was awarded the Higher Doctorate (DSc, Dr. habil., Habilitation) in 2005.

Research and scholarship

My main research interests include the Palaeoecology and Biogeography of selected fossil groups, the ultrastructural analysis of microfossils, fossil extremophiles and their relation to rock formation and deformation, the recent, sub-recent and fossil genesis of stromatolithic structures, Phanerozoic biogeochemical and isotope-biogeochemical signals, the geodynamic evolution of the Variscan Belt, the fragmentation of the Late Precambrian supercontinent Rodinia and associated processes as well as the Sedimentology of extensional basins.