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Our session aims to open a new window into interdisciplinary research bridging Earth Sciences and Biology, with a focus on microfossils and fossilized microorganisms.
Microfossils provide well-preserved and the most continuous fossil records throughout the Phanerozoic eon. Due to their high abundance, global distribution, and rapid evolutionary rates, they have long served as essential tools in geological studies: especially in biostratigraphy, chronology, paleoceanography, and paleontology. The biominerals of microfossils preserve signals of past ocean chemistry and climate changes, and even pollution events. As highly sensitive indicators of environmental change, they are invaluable not only for understanding deep-time Earth history but also for monitoring environmental shifts in the Anthropocene. Fossilized microorganisms diverse in nearly all major eukaryotic supergroups, offering a unique biological archive. In recent decades, rapid advancements in molecular biology have brought new dimensions to their study. Techniques such as molecular phylogenetics, metabarcoding, transcriptomics, and genomic analyses now provide new insights into the evolution, metabolisms, and diversification of microfossil organisms. These approaches also shed light on the intricate relationship between environmental change and biological evolution. As we broaden our scientific approaches to incorporate insights from ecology, cell biology, and environmental sciences, the study of fossilized microorganisms is becoming a hub for truly integrative science. We welcome contributions that explore evolutionary biology and the Earth history, ecology, biochemistry, biomonitoring applications, and other general aspects of microfossils and microorganisms. Join us in bridging the past and present to better understand the history and future of life on Earth.