Staff and Postgraduate Students
Dr Howard Armstrong, BSc (Sheffield)1979, MSc (Sheffield) 1980, PhD (Nottingham)1993
Contact Dr Howard Armstrong (email at h.a.armstrong@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
Lecturer in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy (Newcastle) 1983-1990, Lecturer in Palaeontology (Durham) 1990-2000, Senior Lecturer (Durham) 2000, I.L.T. 2000.
Career Research Highlights
My early research concentrated on conodont palaeobiology and included taxonomic advances and for innovative application of new analytical techniques to the understanding conodont growth, development and evolution. This has been allied to work on the development of a new palaeoecological paradigm for the group and macroevolutionary studies. These have been linked to innovative work on Ordovican climate change. New ideas are currently being developed on the impact of climate belt shifts, landscape evolution and continental margin sedimentation in deep time. I am the joint author of a market leading textbook on microfossils.
Invited keynote lectures:
2006 – International Geological Correlation Program 503, (University of Glasgow). “Tracking the Ordovician glaciation-a new agenda for climate modelling.”
2010 – International Palaeontological Congress London 2010. “Modelling the climate of Palaeozoic Earth”
2011 – IGCP IGCP 591 Special Session. "Palaeozoic global sea level: linking stratigraphy, bioevents, and the stable isotope record." European Geosciences Union EGU General Assembly, 2012, Vienna, Austria. Keynote address.
Committee and Society service
Secretary of the Palaeontological Association (2001- 11 )
Secretary General IPC 2009-10
Vice President: Palaeontological Association
Conferences and workshops
2006 – Geological Society of London – Lyell Meeting organiser “Millennial scale events.”
2008 - EGU General Assembly. Symposium co-convenor "Glaciogenic petroleum systems."
2009-2010 - International Palaeontological Congress: Secretary General
2010 - International Palaeontological Congress: Symposium co-convenor "Palaeozoic Climate."
2012–European shale gas: risks, regulation and research challenges
Departmental and University responsibilities
Module co-ordinator and teaching for modules in Fossils and Evolutionary Palaeobiology.
Chair Teaching and Learning Committee and Director of Studies and Faculty of Science Teaching and Learning Committee.(2002-2005)
University Ethics Committee
Librabry Steering Group
Work for national and international bodies
International Palaeontological Association
2007- UK delegate
2008-2010 - Secretary general IPC London 2010
Natural Environmental Research Council: Member of various selection panels most recently for NERC Advanced Research Fellows and Antarctic Funding Initiative 2009. Grant applications reviewer.
NSF - grant reviewer
Vice President of the Palaeontological Association
Research Groups
Research Interests
- Conodont palaeobiology, Palaeozoic earth systems and climate
- Long-term evolution of the ITCZ and its role in erosion and orogenic exhumation
- Organic-rich rocks:origin, climate controls and hydrocarbon potential
Selected Publications
Books: authored
- Armstrong, H.A & Brasier, M.D (2004). Microfossils. Blackell Scientific Publications.
Edited works: contributions
- Armstrong, H. A (2005). Modes of growth in the euconodont oral skeleton: implications for bias and completeness in the fossil record. In Conodont biology and phylogeny interpreting the fossil record. Purnell, M. A. & Donoghue, P. C. J. Brighton: Palaeontological Association. Special Papers in Palaeontology 73: 27-38.
Journal papers: academic
- Armstrong, H.A & Allen, M.B. (2011). Shifts in the Intertropical Convergence Zone, Himalayan exhumation, and late Cenozoic climate. Geology 39(1): 11–14.
- Turner, B.R., Armstrong, H.A. & Holt, P. (2011). Visions of ice sheets in the early Ordovician greenhouse world: Evidence from the Peninsula Formation, Cape Peninsula, South Africa. Sedimentary Geology 236(3-4): 226-238.
- Waters, J. V., Jones, S. & Armstrong, H. A. (2010). Climatic controls on late Pleistocene alluvial fans, Cyprus. Geomorphology 115(3-4): 228-251.
- Vandenbroucke, T.R.A., Armstrong, H. A. Williams, M. Paris, F. Sabbe, K., Zalasiewicz, J. A. Nõlvak, J. & Verniers, J. (2010). Epipelagicchitinozoan biotopes map a steep latitudinal temperature gradient for earliest Late Ordovician seas: Implications for a cooling Late Ordovician climate. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 294(3-4): 202-219.
- LeHeron, D., Armstrong, H.A., Wilson, C.R., Howard, J.P. & Gindre, L. (2010). Glaciation and deglaciation of the Libyan Desert: The Late Ordovician record. Sedimentary Geology 223(1-2): 100-125.
Vandenbroucke, T.R.A., Armstrong, H. A., Williams, M., Paris, F., Zalasiewicz, Jan A., Sabbe, K. Nõlvak, J. A., Challands, T.J., Verniers, J., Servais, T. &
(2010). Polar front shift and atmospheric CO2 during the glacial maximum of the Early Paleozoic Icehouse. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107(34): 14983-14986.- Vandenbroucke, T.R.A., Armstrong, H.A., Williams, M., Zalasiewicz, J.A. & Sabbe, K. (2009). Ground-truthing Late Ordovician climate models using the paleobiogeography of graptolites. Paleoceanography 24(4): PA4202.
- Armstrong, H.A., Baldini, J., Challands, T.J., Gröcke, D.R. & Owen, A.W. (2009). Response of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone to Southern Hemisphere cooling during Upper Ordovician glaciations. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 284: 227-236.
- Allen, M. B. & Armstrong, H. A. (2008). Arabia-Eurasia collision and the forcing of mid-Cenozoic global cooling. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 265(1-2): 52-58.
- Armstrong, H. A. Abbott, G. D., Turner, B. R. Makhlouf, I. M., Muhammad, A. B., Pedentchouk, N. & Peters H. (2008). Black shale deposition in an Upper Ordovician-Silurian permanently stratified, peri-glacial basin, southern Jordan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 273: 368-377.
- Challands, T. J., Armstrong, H. A., Maloney, D. P., Davies, J.R.D. Wilson, D. & Owen, A. W. (2008). Organic-carbon deposition and coastal upwelling at mid-latitudes during the Upper Ordovician (Late Katian): a case study from the Welsh Basin, UK. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 273: 395-410.
- Turner, B. R, Makhlouf, I. M & Armstrong, H. A (2005). Late Ordovician (Ashgillian) glacial deposits in southern Jordan. Sedimentary Geology 181: 73-91.
- Armstrong, H. A, Turner, B. R, Makhlouf, I. M, Weedon, G. P, Williams, M, Al Smadi, A & Abu Salah, A (2005). Origin, sequence stratigraphy and depositional environment of an upper Ordovician (Hirnantian) deglacial black shale, Jordan. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 220(3-4): 273-289.
Media Contacts
Available for media contact about:
- Science: Education, industry & the community: earth climate in deep time
- The Earth: Animals: Fossils