The session presents applications of paleontology and paleoecology to evolutionary theory, environmental and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, biostratigraphy, paleoclimate, paleoceanography, sea-level change, and population dynamics, as well as modern experimental approaches and culture studies centered on the same fields. The diverse session program will stimulate discussions and the exchange of ideas which will lay the foundations for future paleontological research, particularly as a tool to understand the ongoing change of the global ecosystem.