Dr. Andrej Spiridonov
Professor, Chief Researcher
Scientific Interests, Keywords
Paleobiology, Macroevolution, Macroecology, Climate and Megaclimate, Scaling, Conceptual Issues in Evolution, Quantitative Stratigraphy, Geobiology, Sedimentology.
Project and/or Grant leadership
Research Council of Lithuania grant for outstanding PhD students (2013 and 2014) [4100 €]
Lithuanian Academy of Sciences grant (2015-2016) for outstanding young PhDs [2531 €]
Postdoctoral grant for the project “The influence of Solar cycles on vegetation dynamics of the Quaternary Interglacials” (2017-2019) [53 813 €]
Grant for supervised student (Robertas Stankevič) research. 2017. Development of recurrence plot and recurrence quantification analysis tools for the study of mass extinction events [2 000 €]
Grant for supervised student (Liudas Daumantas) research. 2018. Development and application of classification and regression trees for the spatial studies of paleontological material.[~2 839 €]
Grant for Polish-Lithuanian collaboration group (DAINA) project “Ichnological and sedimentological evidence of late glacial and Holocene environmental changes in the eastern part of the European Sand Belt” (2018-2021), the principal investigator on the Lithuanian side [120 000 €]
Grant for supervised student (Justina Gaižutytė) summer research. 2019. The study of pollen in surface sediments of the lake Imbradas.[~1 878 €].
Supervisor of the post-doctoral Project by Simona Bekeraitė „Hierarchical evolutionary response to biotic and abiotic factors of terrestrial fauna during Cenozoic: probabilistic determination of causal relations“ [66 499 €] 2018-2023
“The role of spatial structuring in major transitions in macroevolution” (Project leader). (2021-2024) [150 000 €]
Invited Talks
Spiridonov A. 2018. Solar cycles - some theoretical and practical research considerations. At the Department of Geosciences and Geography University of Helsinki, Helsinki.
Spiridonov A. 2018. Recurrence plots as a dynamical systems window into the paleocommunity evolution, some examples from the Silurian. At the Department of Geosciences and Geography University of Helsinki, Helsinki.
Spiridonov A. Stankevič R., Samsonė J., Brazauskas A., Meidla M., Ainsaar L., Radzevičius S. 2018. Cross recurrence plot analyses of conodont community turnover – a model free, continuous, high-resolution correlation tool. Opening Meeting IGCP 652 - “Reading Time in Paleozoic sedimentary Rock”, Bremen, 12 - 19 September, Program.
Spiridonov A. 2019. Paleobiology, macroevolution, and macroecology: search for future scenarios travelling through the scales of time and space. Jūros ir krantų tyrimai 2019 Conference, Klaipėda university, Klaipėda.
Spiridonov A. 2021. Recurrence quantification analyses in paleontology. Dynamical systems window into the past. 5th International Meeting of Early-stage Researchers in Palaeontology ONLINE.
Spiridonov A., Robertas Stankevič, Simona Rinkevičiutė, Liudas Daumantas, Tomas Gečas, Sigitas Radzevičius. 2021. Recurrence plots and recurrence quantification analyses generate significant insights about a key paleobiological hypothesis. in Rysak A., Litak G., Marwan N., Webber Ch. (Editors): 9th International Symposium on Recurrence Plots", Lublin, Poland, 37-38 pp.
Spiridonov A., Robertas Stankevič. 2021. Finding a pattern in a wiggle. Searching for synchronization in palaeocommunities in space and time using recurrence theory. At the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, UK.
Spiridonov A. 2022. Geodiversity and its effects on the formation of the Biosphere and human cultures. University of Granada, Spain
Supervision of Doctoral Students and/or Postdoc Students
PhD supervision:
Darja Dankina 2016-2021 (advisor) - theme “Late Permian Fish from Baltic States and Poland: Taxonomy, Palaeoecology, and Biostratigraphy”
Aija Zans 2017-till now (supervisor) - theme “The impact of Late Ordovician to Silurian bioevents on the community structures of brachiopods in Baltica”
Tomas Gečas 2018-till now (supervisor) - theme “Devonian terrestrialization, conodont extinction events and biotic turnover in Baltica”
Simona Petrukonė 2019-till now (supervisor) - theme “Micro- and macroevolutionary trends in the Silurian Ostracoda in relation to paleoceanographic perturbations in the Silurian Baltic Basin”
Robertas Stankevič 2019-till now (supervisor) - theme “Development and application of dynamical systems approaches for the discovery and description of patterns in macroevolution, paleoecology and stratigraphy”
Liudas Daumantas 2020-till now (supervisor) – theme „Spatial laws of macroevolution and their stability in time and space“
Postdocs:
Simona Bekeraitė (2020 -2023) "Multivariate evolutionary response of terrestrial fauna to biotic and abiotic factors during Cenozoic: probabilistic determination of causal relations"
Laura Gedminienė (2023-2025) "Effects of global climatic and human expansion events on the plant paleocommunities in the southern Baltic region.
Teaching Courses
Paleontology; Sequence Stratigraphy; Facies and stratigraphy in the field; Analytical Paleobiology; Topics in Paleobiology; and Topics in Macroevolution.
Supervision of Students' Thesis
Appriximately 10 BSc and MSc students during the past 10 years from the Geology, Biology and Bioinformatics fields.
Participation in the national/international governing bodies, commissions, committees, boards etc.
Strategic meetings on the development of the Vilnius University (2020 and 2021).
Strategic session on the risks and opportunities of climate and environmental change for Lithuania (June 13th 2022). Strategy for Lithuania 2050.
Awards
Vilnius University Rector's’ prize for outstanding scientific achievements of the year (2016)
Vilnius University prize for the best publication of the year 2017 in the category of physical sciences
Vilnius University Rector's’ prize for outstanding scientific achievements of the year (2020)
Science popularization
Hundreds of interviews in the radio, TV, podcasts. I make an Youtube podcast called "Planeta ant delno" (Planet on the Palm of the Hand) https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=planeta+and+delno