Biogeologie & Paleoklimatologie KU Leuven

03/10/2026

Last week, Michael Steenhuyse-Vandevelde was hosted at RWTH Aachen (Germany) to use their Laser Ablation ICP-MS for generating Mg/Ca data on benthic foraminifera. The Mg/Ca ratio of the calcite of which these forams are made, is used by scientists to reconstruct ancient seawater temperatures.

29/09/2026

As a paleontological research group based in Leuven (Belgium), we also have great interest in the regional paleontology/stratigraphy. This summer for instance we did (labour intensive) fieldwork in the Oligocene of the greater Leuven area, in search of shark and ray teeth.

18/09/2026

This month, Pieter Van Rompaey is performing TEX86 analyses at the organic geochemistry lab of Utrecht University, as part of his PhD research. The TEX86 paleothermometer is based on the chemical composition of membrane lipids (isoGDGTs) of marine archaea (a group of unicellular organisms). These organisms namely build more cyclopentane rings in their membrane lipids when water temperatures are warmer, allowing scientists to reconstruct ancient sea surface temperatures.

11/09/2026

With summer sadly comming to an end, the conference season is also ending. This year our research group was well represented in multiple different countries, including at EAVP2026 in Vilnius (Lithuania), DINO13 in Bremen (Germany) and CBEP2026 in Washington, DC (USA).

01/09/2026

After a long time of silence we are back with exciting news! Former BSc students Anne Basten, Pascal van der Bij and Wouter Berings, supervised by Sophie Boerman and Prof. Johan Vellekoop, just published their BSc project in Geologica Belgica. For their project they studied the crocodylian remains of the historical Filhol collection housed at KU Leuven. Read all about it on:

Diplocynodon is an enigmatic extinct genus that is generally considered to be part of the Alligatoroidea, Crocodylia. While Alligatoroidea potentially originated in North America, Diplocynodon only has a fossil record in Europe, dating from the middle Eocene to middle Miocene (c. 45–15 Ma). The st...

17/02/2026

New publication!
The strange looking narrow-snouted crocodilians called gharials are threatened with extinction today. However, new research by our PhD student Sophie Boerman indicates their lineage might be 100 milion years old, older than any of the other crocodylians:
https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2025.2604600

09/02/2026

A warm reminder for the Fossil Cervid-Day, organised on March 14th at KU Leuven, Arenberg III campus Heverlee.
You can find the full program and registration link by following link: https://www.palaeontologica-belgica.org/fossilcervidday

Be there or be square!

Webpage on the Fossil Cervid Conference at the Leuven University (KU Leuven) on satuday 14th March 2026 - The first half of a Belgian-Dutch initiative focused on the study of Fossil deers from the Northwerstern European fossil archive.

06/02/2026

De regio van Antwerpen is al langer geliefd onder haaientandenverzamelaars voor haar rijke haaientandenfauna, maar wist jij dat deze regio eveneens rijk is aan fossielen van walvissen en dolfijnen?
Lees er meer over in de nieuwste publicatie van Pieter Van Rompaey (KU Leuven) en collegas!

EARLY DELPHINIDA (CETACEA, ODONTOCETI) FROM THE MIOCENE OF THE SOUTHERN NORTH SEA BASIN Authors PIETER VAN ROMPAEY Katholieke Universiteit Leuven https://orcid.org/0009-0002-8902-7244 OLIVIER LAMBERT D.O. Terre & Histoire de la Vie, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique https://orcid.or...

19/01/2026

We are excited to share that Michael received the IOCTX2025 Best Poster Award in the paleotaxonomy session of the 1st International Online Conference on Taxonomy! His poster highlighted his recent work on Oligocene-Miocene benthic foraminifera of the genus Asterigerinoides.