Dr. Argyriou is Assistant Professor in the department of Science and Mathematics of the ACG, where he also teaches courses on various aspects of environmental science. His research focuses the evolution and paleobiology of aquatic vertebrates, with an emphasis on the study of the evolutionary history of ray-finned fishes from intervals of past Mass Extinctions. He holds a B.Sc. (2010) in Geology and Geoenvironments from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece, and an M.Sc. (2014) in Systematics and Evolution from the University of Alberta, Canada. Dr. Argyriou received his Ph.D. (2018) in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. During his Ph.D studies, he also completed a competitively-funded year of research as invited scholar at the Museum of Paleontology of the University of Michigan, USA. Following his studies, Dr. Argyriou worked as postdoctoral researcher at the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France, and the Ludwig-Maximillians University, Munich, Germany. Dr. Argyriou received several prestigious grants and awards, including two career grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation and an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. He is author of over 20 peer-reviewed scientific publications and serves as associate editor of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology (Taylor & Francis).
Illuminating the origins of modern ray-finned fish biodiversity through the End-Permian Extinction: This climate-driven Mass Extinction constitutes the deadliest biotic crisis of the Phanerozoic, having eradicated ~80% of marine species, and represents a deep-time analog for the ongoing anthropogenic climatic and biotic perturbations. At first glance, ray-finned fishes appear to have been relatively unaffected by this event, but uncertainties about the placement of fossils with regards to extant lineages hampers the assessment of the actual impact of the Extinction on this dominant clade of aquatic vertebrates and obscures the origins of living lineages. This line of research will focus on a series of anatomical and phylogenetic studies of Permian–Triassic ‘fishes’ to help tease out their interrelationships and aid in the understanding of their extinction, survival, and recovery patterns.
Evolution of the Tethyan/Mediterranean aquatic vertebrate fauna during the past 100 million years:
The nowadays largely vanished ocean of the (Neo)Tethys constituted a major hotspot of tropical ‘fish’ biodiversity during the Mesozoic–early Cenozoic. An array of largely abiotically-induced crises (e.g., K–Pg Extinction, Messinian Salinity Crisis, Pleistocene Cooling) led to the gradual isolation and de-tropification of the Western Neotethys in the latter part of the Cenozoic, and the emergence of the modern Mediterranean fauna. Traces of these processes are encapsulated by the geological record of the Peritethyan Realm and are reflected on its diverse fossilized marine faunas and ecosystems. To shed new light on these topics, this subproject aims to yield insights from the underexplored but extremely promising nature of the Greek fossil record of aquatic vertebrates. Emphasis will be placed on conducting field and lab-based taxonomic and paleoenvironmental studies on various underexplored localities in Greece, spanning the Late Cretaceous to the Pleistocene.
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thodoris-Argyriou?ev=hdr_xprf
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2036-5088