Ulla Asgaard (-2023)

Ulla Asgaard was born the 4th January 1936 in Odense (Denmark). They moved to Aarhus shortly after her birth, when her father first got a job in an insurance company. He later became CEO at Funki, a factory for incubators. She attended the cathedral school in Aarhus; then studied Geology at the University of Copenhagen. After graduating, she continued her research there, teaching invertebrate palaeontology and geology. She married the ichnologist Richard Granville Bromley (1939-2018), both were employed and working as lecturers at the Institute of Historical Geology and Palaeontology, University of Copenhagen, until their retirement in 2009. In the end of 1960s and early 1970s, both participated in geological mapping excursions to Greenland.

She passed away on 18th June 2023, and is buried at the graveyard at Finderup Kirke on Zealand (Sjælland), together with her husband.

Christian C. Emig with additional comments from Finn Surlyk and Lothar H. Vallon

In the early years she worked mainly on taxonomy and palaeoecology of Maastrichtian and Danian brachiopods. A palaeoecological study of the commonly minute brachiopods from the cool-water coral mound at Faxe, south of Copenhagen is well known. She was almost obsessed by the study of the taxonomy of terebratulids from these periods, mainly species of the genus Carneithyris [by Finn Surlyk].

Asgaard U., 1968. Brachiopod palaeoecology in Middle Danian limestones at Faske, Denmark. Lethaia, 1 (2), 103-121.

Asgaard U., 1970. The syntypes of Carneithyris incisa (Buch, 1835). Medd. Dansk Geol. Foren. København, 19, 361-367.

Asgaard U., 1971. Faksethyris nielseni n. g. et n. sp. (Terebratulacea) from the Middle Danian of Danemark. Bull. Geol. Soc. Denmark, 20, 385-389.

Asgaard U., 1972. Observations on Neoliothyrina fittoni a rare Maastrichtian terebratulid from NW Europe. Bull. Geol. Soc. Denmark, 21, 337-345.

Asgaard U., 1975. A revision of Sahni's types of the brachiopod subfamily Carneithyridinae. Bull. Br. Mus. nat Hist. (Geol.), 25 (5), 319-365.

Asgaard U., 1986. Pædomorphosis in brachiopods, a response to stressful environments? In, Brachiopodes fossiles et actuels, 1^er Congrès international sur les Brachiopodes, Brest, 1986. Biostratigr. Paléozoïque, 4, 43-46.

Asgaard U., 2008. Crania at your service, the Antikythira Shipwreck. Fossils and Strata, 54, 277-282.

Asgaard U. & N. Stentoft, 1984. Recent micromorph brachiopods from Barbados, Paleoecological and evolutionary implications. Géobios, mém. spécial, 8, 29-33.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R. G., 1991. Population dynamics and autecology of 'Rhynchonella' triangularis, a Late Cretaceous rocky coast brachiopod. In, MacKinnon D. I., Lee D. E. & J. D. Campbell Eds, Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 247–252.

Asgaard U. & R. G. Bromley, 1991. Colonization by micromorph brachiopods in the shallow subtidal of the eastern Mediterranean Sea. In, MacKinnon D. I., Lee D. E. & J. D. Campbell Eds, Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 261-264.

Later she worked with Richard Bromley on many ecological aspects of burrowing, boring and encrusting faunas of mainly modern faunas, notably from Rhodes Island in the Mediterranean. These studies differ form much of the other works of both authors in focusing on ecological rather than taxonomic aspects. To these studies Ulla mainly contributed behavioural aspects and details about the ecology of the tracemakers. It seems that they really inspired each other in these field studies undertaken in or near to warmer southern seas [from Finn Surlyk and Lothar H. Vollan].

Surlyk F., Bromley R.G., Asgaard U. & Pederse, K.R., 1971. Preliminary account of the mapping of the Mesozoic formations of south-east Jameson Land. Grønlands Geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport, 37, 24-32.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1972. Notes on Greenland trace fossils. I-III. Grønlands geologiske Undersøgelse, Rapport, 49, 30 p.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R.G., 1974. Sporfossiler fra den Mellem Miocæne transgression i Søby-Fasterholt området. Dansk Geologisk Forening, Årsskrift for 1973, 11-19.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1975. Sediment structures produced by a spatangoid echinoid, a problem of preservation. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark, 24, 261-281.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1979. Triassic freshwater ichnocoenoses from Carlsberg Fjord, East Greenland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 28, 38-80.

Hanken N.-M., Bromley R.G., Asgaard U., Fredriksen K.R., Henriksen L.B. & Espenes H.J., 1989. Underkambriske og overpermiske sporfossilassosiasjoner fra nord-Norge og Svalbard. Contributions from the Paleontological Museum, University of Oslo, 359, 13-14.

Bromley R.G., Hanken N.-M. & Asgaard U., 1990. Shallow marine bioerosion, preliminary results of an experimental study. Bulletin of the Geolological Society of Denmark, 38, 85-99.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1990. Solecurtus strigilatus, a jet-propelled burrowing bivalve. In Morton B. (ed.). The Bivalvia (Proceedings of a Memorial Symposium in Honour of Sir Charles Maurice Yonge, Edinburgh, 1986), Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 313-320.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1991. Ichnofacies, a mixture of taphofacies and biofacies. Lethaia, 24, 153-163.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1993. Endolithic community replacement on a Pliocene rocky coast. Ichnos, 2, 93-116.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 1993. Two bioerosion ichnofacies produced by early and late burial associated with sea-level change. Geologische Rundschau, 82, 276-280.

Bromley R.G., Jensen M. & Asgaard U., 1995. Spatangoid echinoids, deep-tier trace fossils and chemosymbiosis. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie, Abhandlungen, 195, 25-35.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R.G., 1996. Sømusene og korsridderne. Varv, 1996(2), 43-50.

Bromley R.G., Asgaard U. & Jensen M., 1997. Experimental study of sediment structures created by a spatangoid echinoid, Echinocardium mediterraneum. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, London, 108, 183-189.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R.G., 1997. Bioerosion, den første internationale workshop holdt på Bornholm. Geologisk Tidskrift, 1997 (2), 13.

Asgaard U., Bromley R.G., & Hanken N.-M., 1997. Recent firmground burrows produced by a upogebiid crustacean, palaeontological implications. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg, 201, 23-28.

Bromley R.G., Ekdale A.A. & Asgaard U., 1999. Zoophycos in the Upper Cretaceous chalk of Denmark and Sweden. In Reich, M. (ed.). Festschrift zum 65. Geburtstag von Ekkehard Herrig. Greifswalder Geowissenschaftliche Beiträge, 6, 133-142.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 2003. Historien bag et mønster. Varv, 2003 (3), 3-7.

Asgaard U., Bromley R.G. & Uchman A., 2005. Guddommelige spiraler - historien bag et mønster 2. Varv, 2005 (3), 18-21.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R.G., 2007. Co-occurrence of schizasterid echinoids and the trace fossil Scolicia, Pleistocene, Greece, facts, myths and fascioles. In Bromley R.G., Buatois L.A., Mángano M.G., Genise J.F. & Melchor R.N. (eds.). Sediment-organism interactions, A multifaceted ichnology. SEPM Special Publications, 88, 85-94.

Bromley R.G. & Asgaard U., 2008. Jørgen Butzbach, "Geologi på Bornholm - og i det ny gymnasium - en anmeldelse". Natur på Bornholm, 2008 (6), 70-71.

Asgaard U. & Bromley R.G., 2008. Echinometrid sea urchins, their trophic styles and corresponding bioerosion. In Wisshak, M. and Tapanila, L. (eds.). Current developments in bioerosion. Erlangen Earth Conference Series, Springer, Berlin, 279-303.

Färber C., Titschack J., Schönberg C.H.L., Ehrig K., Boos K., Baum D., Illerhaus B., Asgaard U., Bromley R.G., Freiwald A., & Wisshak M., 2016. Long-term macrobioerosion in the Mediterranean Sea assessed by micro-computed tomography. Biogeosciences, 13, 3461-3474.

Carmona N.B., Mángano M.G., Buatois L.A., Bromley R. G., Ponce J.J., Asgaard U. & Bellosi E., 2020. Scolicia and its producer in shallow-marine deposits of the Miocene Chenque Formation (Patagonia, Argentina), functional morphology and implications for understanding burrowing behavior. Ichnos, 27, 290-299.

Ulla Asgaard 1936 - 2023

Ulla Asgaard

1936 - 2023