GARDIN Axelle
Postdoctoral researcher & ATER, ISEM, Montpellier
Associated member
Main research question
I am a paleontologist specializing in freshwater vertebrates from tropical Africa. My research aims to reconstruct ancient aquatic ecosystems, water resource availability, and seasonal contrasts in tropical landscapes. I use an interdisciplinary approach combining faunal assemblage analysis, skeletal growth, and isotopic biogeochemistry (δ18O, Δ’17O). I regularly integrate modern and fossil data to calibrate environmental proxies.
Topics of study
My current work focuses on (1) characterizing the spatial diversity of past freshwater ecosystems, (2) developing isotopic approaches to identify water stress and past ecological refugia, and (3) calibrating the use of skeletal growth rhythms in actinopterygians as tracers of seasonal contrasts.
Teaching
I teach paleontology, comparative vertebrate anatomy, and geosciences.
Collective responsibilities
- Member of the Steering Committee of the Association for early-career Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists (AWAP)
- Co-organizer of the Virtual Conference for Early-Career Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists
Prize
- Jury Prize awarded by the Association for early-career Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists 2022: Axelle Gardin for her short oral communication: Gardin A., Griffet J., Mahamat A., Dufour E., Garcia G., Otero O. Skeletal growth rhythmed by seasonal environmental fluctuations in Nile perch (Lates niloticus): implication for paleoclimatic reconstructions. 2nd Virtual Conference for Women Archaeologists and Paleontologists.
- Depéret Prize 2021 awarded by the French Paleontological Association: Axelle Gardin for her oral communication: Gardin A., Salesa M.J., Siliceo G., Antón M., Pastor J.-F., de Bonis L. – Adaptations au grimper et paléoécologie d’Amphicynodon leptorhynchus, petit carnivore énigmatique de l’Oligocène inférieur des Phosphorites du Quercy. Réunion de l’Association Paléontologique Française, Troyes.
- Transmitting Science Prize awarded by the European Association of Vertebrate Paleontology 2021: Axelle Gardin for her oral communication: Gardin A., Salesa M.J., Siliceo G., Antón M., Pastor J. F., de Bonis L. Meet Amphicynodon leptorhynchus, a 30 Myr old emblematic small carnivoran from the Quercy Phosphorites: locomotor adaptations of the forelimb and paleoecology. 18th Conference of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists.