Andrea Baucon

Dive into the depths of time and discover fossil fishes. Share your best-fish choice with fellow rockhounds! 🌞

I'm holding Neptune balls during a neoichnological survey in Sardinia!
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Yes! These balls are natural bundles of fibre called egagropili, or Neptune balls.
During winter storms, parts of the Posidonia seaweed ('Neptune grass') detach and form spherical balls on the seabed due to wave action.

How old are trilobites compared to dinosaurs?
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The earliest trilobites predate dinosaurs by about 290 million years! Share if you're amazed by the ancient origins of trilobites!
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Which do you find most fascinating? Select from these examples showcased at the Natural History of !

Today I'll talk about AI in palaeontology — and take you inside the mind of an artificial palaeontologist, to see how it actually makes decisions.
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45

If you're at Paleodays in Bolzano, don't miss the chance to explore the Permian caldera you're standing in — and know about the organisms that burrowed here in the Permian, right where you are now.
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45

I'm in Bolzano to talk about ichnology & AI — inside a palaeocaldera, about the palaeocaldera. Want to know what's beneath your feet right now? You'll find out today.
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45

Fair warning: I'm going to make some of you angry — especially paleoartists. I'll be talking about AI, including generative AI, in palaeontology. It's going to be provocative.
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45

At Paleo4Alps I'll unveil my "original sin" — the very first ichnological illustration ever made with AI. A sin? Maybe. But it brought a Permian ecosystem back to life.
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45


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Here's the abstract:

Ecosystem dynamics in the Permian Bolzano caldera (Italy): an integrated ichnological and artificial intelligence approach

Andrea Baucon1,*, Steffen Trümper2, Corrado Morelli3, Carlos Neto De Carvalho4,5, Roberto Cabella6, Andrea Barucci7, Juri Agresti7, Debora Giovannelli7, Bianca Müller8, Isacco Alberti8, Mattia Alessio Meloni1,*, Evelyn Kustatscher9
1 Dipartimento di Scienze Chimiche e Geologiche, Università di Cagliari, Cittadella Universitaria di Monserrato S.S. 554 Bivio Sestu – 09042 Monserrato, Cagliari, Italy
2 Institute for Geology and Palaeontology, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 24, 48149 Münster, Germany.
3 Servizio Geologico, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano, Via Val d’Ega, 48, 39053 Cardano, Italy.
4 Geology Office, Municipality of Idanha-a-Nova, Naturtejo UNESCO Global Geopark. Centro Cultural Raiano, Av. Joaquim Morão, 6060-101 Idanha-a-Nova, Portugal.
5 Universidade de Lisboa, Faculdade de Ciências, Instituto D. Luiz, 1749-016 Lisbon, Portugal.
6 DISTAV, Università di Genova, Corso Europa, 26, 16132 Genova GE, Italy.
7 Istituto di Fisica Applicata “Nello Carrara” IFAC – CNR, Via Madonna del Piano, 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino Firenze
8 Dipartimento di Biologia, Università di Firenze, Viale Morgagni, 40/44 - 50134 Firenze, Italia
9 Museum of Nature South Tyrol, Via Bottai 1, 39100 Bolzano, Italy.
* Corresponding author: [email protected]

Volcanic settings host some of the most extreme continental ecosystems on Earth, yet the infaunal palaeoecology of caldera lakes and streams remains poorly understood. Here we use the Bolzano Supervolcano — the largest and best-exposed Permian supervolcano of Europe — as a natural laboratory to investigate how life copes with recurrent volcanic disturbance, integrating paleoichnological and sedimentological analysis with artificial intelligence and neoichnology across multiple sites within the palaeocaldera and its surroundings.
Three broad ecological patterns emerge. First, infaunal life was structured by transient colonisation windows. At Silberhof, straight burrows record substrate exploitation by r-strategic organisms — likely insects — during volcanic stasis, when seasonal streams opened favourable colonization windows. Second, microbial communities thrived where metazoans could not: microbially-induced sedimentary structures (gas domes, wrinkle marks) at Monte Luco and Tregiovo indicate that extreme conditions (e.g., low-oxygen porewater, alkaline settings) suppressed metazoan competition. Third, disturbance acted as a biodiversity-promoting force: the Gocciadoro alluvial fan supports a three-stage succession model in which debris flows generated nutrient-rich habitats colonised by opportunistic deposit feeders, while the absence of K-selected taxa indicates recurrent stress.
Artificial intelligence sharpens these signals: generative AI produced the first visualisation of a bioturbated palaeoecosystem, and Vision Transformers at Sesto autonomously discriminated bioturbated from non-bioturbated ichnofabrics. Far from being lifeless wastelands, supervolcanic ecosystems emerge as vibrant arenas of ecological innovation — landscapes in which life persisted, adapted, and diversified in the face of recurrent disturbance.

How did a Permian volcanic ecosystem really work? I combined ichnology + AI to reconstruct a lost world inside the Bolzano megacaldera — burrowing insects, microbial mats & more. Join my talk at !
📅 Wednesday, 22.07 | 📍Room D1.02 | ⏰16:45