Paleontologist, employee of the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, also associated with the University of Warsaw. He specializes in invertebrate phylogeny, methodology for reconstructing the course of evolution, its fossil record, as well as in paleoclimatology and paleoecology. He is the author of highly regarded popular science books and academic textbooks, such as “The History of Life on Earth,” “Biology, or the Meaning of Life,” and “Evolution, the Creative Power of Selection.”