Dr. Lisa Amati

State Paleontologist, Curator of Invertebrate Paleontology
518-474-8949

I am an invertebrate paleontologist with a focus on the paleoecology and evolutionary relationships of trilobites.  I mainly study the Middle to Late Ordovician trilobites of New York, Ontario, and Quebec but have recently started working on the Upper Cambrian trilobites of the Potsdam Sandstone in New York. 

During the Cambrian, trilobites were one of the most diverse and abundant groups of organisms, and they continued to be an important component of marine communities through the Ordovician.  As such, I use them as indicators of biotic response to long-term environmental change (see Late Ordovician Faunal Change in the Taconic Foreland Basin and Chazy below).  Trilobites, especially in the Cambrian, are also extremely useful chronometers. For example, the oldest Phanerozoic rock unit in New York is the newly discovered and named Altona Formation, which we were able to date as Middle Cambrian based on the trilobites preserved within it (also see Potsdam Sandstone Trilobites below).

Publications

2016

G. Geyer, E. Landing 2016, Comment on “Terreneuvian Small Shelly Faunas of East Yunnan (South China) and Their Biostratigraphic Implications”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology , doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.04.016. 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.04.016
E. Landing, A. Kouchinsky 2016, Correlation of the Cambrian Evolutionary Radiation: geochronology, evolutionary stasis of earliest Cambrian (Terreneuvian) small shelly fossil (SSF) taxa, and chronostratigraphic significance, Geological Magazine 153, 750-756. 10.1017/S0016756815001089
E. Landing, Joseph Meert, Natalia Levashova, Mikhail Bazhenov 2016, Rapid changes of magnetic Field polarity in the late Ediacaran: Linking the Cambrian evolutionary radiation and increased UV-B radiation, Gondwana Research 34, 149–157. 10.1016/j.gr.2016.01.001
E. Landing, Samuel Bowring, Judy Pu, Jahandar Ramezani, Paul Myrow, Timothy Raub, Andrea Mills, Eben Hodgin, Francis Macdonald 2016, Dodging snowballs: Geochronology of the Gaskiers glaciation and the first appearance of the Ediacaran biota, Geology 44, 955-958. 10.1130/G38284.1
E. Landing, M. Webster 2016, Geological context, biostratigraphy and systematic revision of late early Cambrian olenelloid trilobites from the Parker and Monkton formations, northwestern Vermont, U.S.A., Australasian Palaeontological Memoirs 49, 193-240.
Geyer, G., Landing, E., 2016. The Precambrian–Phanerozoic and Ediacaran–Cambrian Boundaries: A Historical Approach to a Dilemma, in: Brasier, A., McIlroy, D., McLoughlin, N. (Eds.), Earth System Evolution and Early Life: A Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier. Geological Society of London, London, England, pp. 311-349.

2015

E. Landing, J. Antcliffe, M. Brasier, A. English 2015, Distinguishing Earth’s oldest bryozoan (Pywackia, Late Cambrian) from pennatulacean octocorals (Mesozoic–Recent), Journal of Paleontology 89, 292-317. 10.1017/jpa.2014.26
E. Landing, J. Antcliffe, M. Brasier, A. English 2015, Distinguishing Earths Oldest Bryozoan (Pywackia, Late Cambrian) from Pennatulacean Octocorals (Mesozoic-Recent), Journal of Paleontology 89, 292-317. 10.1017/jpa.2014.26
G. Geyer, E. Landing, R. Buckwaldt, S. Bowring 2015, Geochronology of the Cambrian: A Precise Middle Cambrian U-Pb Zircon Date from the German Margin of West Gondwana, Geological Magazine 152, 28-40. 10.1017/S0016756814000119
E. Landing, A.W.A. Rushton, R.A. Fortey, S.A. Bowring 2015, Improved Geochronologic Accuracy and Precision for the ICS Chronostratigraphic Charts: Examples from the late Cambrian–Early Ordovician, Episodes 38, 154-161.