Lars Holmer

The main aim of my research is to resolve the origin and earliest phylogeny of the brachiopods and other lophophorates, by detailed palaeobiological investigation of their oldest remains in the fossil record in combination with knowledge from molecular and morphological/anatomical studies of the living forms.

One of the great unsolved evolutionary events concerns the origin and phylogeny of the major animal phyla that appeared in the fossil record more than 540 million years ago, during the Cambrian Explosion. Although new molecular information has been very useful, we still have little understanding about the origination of most of the 15-30 phyla of bilaterians living today. The richly diverse fossil remains from this interval are particularly well exposed on the continents of Australia and China, where exceptionally preserved fossil lophotrochozoan and lophophorates including brachiopods have proven to be particularly abundant. In contrast very little is known about the Cambrian record of life in Antarctica. My continuing work on the new Cambrian material will offer new sources of new critical palaeobiological data that will be important for the understanding of the body plan evolution, mode of life and ultimately, the phylogeny of the stem and crown group members of the lophophorates.